


Drop Your Weapons

by Meringue (PrinceOwyn), PrinceOwyn



Series: The Big One Strikes [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, F/M, I will be adding tags as they come up, M/M, Modern Character in Thedas, Modern Girl in Thedas, Not an Inquisition Retelling, Other, Stitches/ Original Female Character - Freeform, no beta we die like men, not really at least
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 22:27:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21766540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceOwyn/pseuds/Meringue, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceOwyn/pseuds/PrinceOwyn
Summary: An FBI agent is hiking for a few days in the Olympic National Park Rainforest when the breach pulls her and a few other poor unfortunate souls through to Thedas. The first thing she does is kill someone who tries to attack her. She decides to treat the whole thing like a job in order to survive. How will Thedas react to her, what will they do with the other who have fallen through, can they ever get back? She intends to find out. Only one problem, there's a few different wars going on and she's going to get stuck in the middle of it. The child of European immigrants, she grew up hearing about making your way in a new place and she intends to do just that until she can get back to her family and sister.The Inquisition takes place in the background of this story.
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Series: The Big One Strikes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1568740
Comments: 26
Kudos: 70





	1. Dropped

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think. I have about 22k words written for this already I was really, really hesitant about making her an FBI agent, but it was the profession that fit the things I wanted for her character and it really came together well. It was just hard for me because also, fuck da police. A bit of that will be coming.

The first thing Kleio felt when she woke was pain. Cracked rib, possibly. Hope fully just bruised. The last thing she needed was to be hiking back to her car and puncture a lung on the way. She set her hiking bag down, unzipping her hoodie, so she could run a hand up under her shirt to check her ribs. She’d broken them before, and badly. She knew what it would feel like to the touch, at least, if her rib was totally cracked. With a sigh, she ran a hand up the back of her head. It felt like she’d hit something on the way down. She pulled her hand away and it came back clean. Klieo turned her head right and then left, testing to see if the world shifted. No movement. Finally, she looked up at the sky and frowned.

“What the… Hell…?” She muttered to herself as she looked up at the reflection of two moons in the sky overhead. She held up one finger in front of her face. No, she only saw one. Taking a closer look around, she was a little alarmed to find herself surround, not by the typical forests found around the Olympic National Park. This was decidedly not a rainforest, especially not the one she’d taken her yearly hike around. The UNESCO site was always her break before the rains came in fall and carried on through winter. No. The area she found herself in seemed more… Evergreen. Mountainous.

With a sigh Klieo pulled her SAT radio out, setting her side arm aside as she fumbled in her bag for her trail guide and notebook where she kept all the information she needed to get in touch. Calling was better than fumbling around. She didn’t remember how she got here. That, and hallucinating two moons, meant that she might have brain damage, maybe a concussion. She needed emergency help.

She turned the thing on and frowned. No connection. That wasn’t common, but it happened. She sighed, again, taking a drink of water, from the mouthpiece attached to her bag and pulled out arm warmers, gloves, and her pea coat. The air here was much colder than what she remembered, but who knew how long she’d been out for. Pulling them on, she hefted the bag back over her shoulders, buckled it around her torso, then picked up her side arm and strapped it in to the holster the rested on her hip before starting up the ridge, trying to get as much open air above her as possible. When she was satisfied, she checked her SAT phone again.

Nothing. Still. “What the fuck… “

With a look around, she idly played with the snaps on her holster, a habit she’d acquired, and mostly broken herself of. “I guess this is as good a spot as any.” With that she dropped her bag and started to make a rough camp. She couldn’t, shouldn’t go far until she knew which direction to move in. That meant waiting here for her sat phone to get signal. This spot would also help charge her solar panel.

She put her gun next to her bag while she worked, looking for her lighter to start a bit of a fire for warmth. She could also make some coffee and take some Tylenol. That might help with the pain in her head, which wasn’t as bad as the last time she had a concussion. Not that it happened too often anymore, but when Kleio had been a beat cop, rather than under an Undercover agent with the FBI, she’d taken a blow to the head a time or two. She worked organized crime and life was _not_ glamourous, but it was more fulfilling than chasing homeless people off every morning. She’d quit the force after a year and gone to college, getting a master’s in international politics, spoke two more languages than she had and applied to the Bureau. Kleio had grown up in a family with a Russian grandmother and a Greek father, so she spoke both Russian, Greek and English growing up, then added Italian and Spanish, which were easy enough to learn together.

Kleio pulled out her SAT phone again and frowned. Still nothing. It hadn’t even made a noise; she’d been listening for it. Looking up at the sky again, she frowned, noting how now that she was out of the trees, she could see a cloud of weird green light in the sky. She picked her cellphone up and snapped a photo of the light. Her phone had no bars either, not that she had expected it to.

The light then snapped flickering more brightly, and she pursed her lips more. If she was hallucinating this badly maybe there really was something wrong. Puling her phone up, she flipped the camera around to face herself, but her pupils were the same size. What the hell was going on? Frowning she was about to put her phone away when she noticed silver flash behind her, someone moved up an arrow pointed at her back. Without thinking, she dropped both phones, while reaching for her firearm. An arrow whizzed over her head. She spun on her knees and held her gun out in front of her. “Drop your weapon or I will shoot!” Kleio pitched her voice an octave lower out of habit. Sexism meant people responded more to commands if they came with a deeper voice.

The person in front of her was… was he wearing armor? Like, Metal plate armor. “FBI drop your weapon! Now! Or I will be forced to shoot you.” She was debating where to aim, trying to decide how best to penetrate the metal. Hit it at the wrong angle and the bullet may shatter and ricochet. They were drawing the string back and without hesitation, Kleio aimed for their head. Not an ideal target, but better than hitting herself with shrapnel, however small the risk for that may be.  
  
The shot echoed loudly in the forest around her. She swore softly and rushed to pick her things up, trying to find a place she could hide, but knowing her fire, still going would give her away. She took refuge behind a particularly thick tree and waited, listening. When no one else came over an hour later, she stuffed her things back in her bag and walked back to her fire which had mostly died, stomping the embers out before walking over to the man she’d shot, then frowned more. Pointed ears? Odd. She reached down to feel them, running her fingers along the cartilage. They were real? Surely she couldn’t be hallucinating this much…

Kleio always hated when she had to shoot someone. She’d given him more of a chance that her boss would have liked, but, even in self defense she hated it. The only reason she even had her gun with her was she had put her things in storage, having signed a lease on a new place that would start after her old lease ended. It was why she was out here, but she couldn’t leave her gun attended and in storage for so long. She eyed the man’s quiver of arrows and bow. With a sigh she checked the body for ID and found none, though she found a sack of coins. She left them with him and headed the direction he’d come from. Less than a mile from where she’d camped, she’d found a road and people, but they were all dressed like him or more strangely. She sat behind a bush watching the road for thirty minutes but only counted two groups, though each one was made up of more than five people, many whom were crying or staring at the green light in the sky. That they could see it meant that she was at least not hallucinating that, unless, somehow, she had more than one layer of hallucination, but she was dubious about that.

With a frown she turned around and slipped back to her former potential camp and the dead body she’d left there. “Right. So… You have no ID, but your pants, at least, could really help me. And probably your bow and quiver. I know it’s not fair, but, honestly, you did try to kill me while my back was turned… Hopefully, you didn’t shit yourself when you died….” She muttered, unfastening them. Thankfully, he had not.

This wasn’t the first person she’d killed, and it didn’t feel great this time around, either. The first time had been someone who had tried, after figuring out she was FBI, to sell her at an underground auction for slavery. She’d shot him and slipped out of the venue only to come back with back up and raid the place. After that they all kind of blurred together. She kept track of how many died during a mission and not who she killed, personally. The better she got at her job, the less she had to do it. She looked at the elf. This one…. It felt odd. It didn’t exactly sit right, but that that was because she’d been so much better armed than him, even in all his armor.

Kleio needed to focus.

Her boots would do and help save her trying to survive ill fitted shoes. She took his bow and quiver, then swiped the knife she found at his back. Lastly, hating herself for it, she picked up the bag of coins. Clearly, she did not think people were taking USD here. With that, she headed back down the ridge, looking for a boulder and pulled her trowel out and started digging. In a hole about a foot deep she took her nylon bag she kept in her bag for her dirty clothes and put on her plaid flannel button-up, keeping her under tank on as well as her bra and keeping her change of underwear, sleeping clothes as well as her hoodie and pea coat. The arm warmers knit cap and shawl she always packed when camping stayed with her. Her Jeans, graphic tee she’d packed as an extra shirt, cellphone, SAT phone, Solar panel, flashlight, charging cables all went in the bag. She pulled her clip out of her gun, cleared the chamber and pulled it apart, wrapping the gun up in her clothes and left it in the bag. She left her pair shoes, the lightweight ones she kept around to give her feet a break in the bag and went through the rest of her things. She sighed and grudgingly left her badge and wallet before taking the softer shoes back.

Everything settled, she filled the hole back up and went to the boulder walking around to the side, using the edge of her trowel, she carved the letters FBI into the side as best she could. She just hoped it would be enough for her to be able to find it again if she needed it. With that, she started back towards the road, quiver on one hip, bow behind her back where she could still grab it, her dagger at her other side. What the hell was she going to do?

When she got to road she waved at people until someone stopped asking her “Yes, Lass?” the man with a Scottish accent asked, quietly, looking tense and weary.

“I’m so sorry…” She muttered looking up and down the road. “I got turned around in the woods and I’m not sure where this road goes? Would you mind helping me?”

He smiled kindly at her and nodded “Sure, The road this way will take you to Redcliffe and on to Denerim, and the other way will take you up to Haven and the Inquisition. But until we can deal with that mess,” He pointed to the green light “you might want to stay away. Course, we can use all the help we could get, if you know how to use them.” He gestured to her weapons, then seemed to take in the rest of her gear and frowned, looking thoughtful. “You don’t know anything about what happened at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, do you?”  
  
That took her back and she didn’t even have to feign shock and confusion. “Me? No! It’s… it’s really creepy. What happened? I just woke up and it was… there?”

The blue eyes watching her, flicked down the road. “The, ah,… the conclave... The Temple it blew up. When the breech happened. It was yesterday.”

Kleio’s eyes widened in shock, part of her yearning to run down the road to help but if it was a day past… She chewed on her lower lip thinking “How many…” She trailed off, not knowing how to ask.

“No survivors but one. They might be behind it. I’m Knight-Captain Rylen, by the way, of the Inquisition.”

“Katia Markos.” The name slipped past her lips easily, pulling a name from her many aliases. “Nice to meet you Rylen” She smiled just as easily. “Thank you for your help and… and I hope you guys can figure it out.”

He held a hand, closed fist to his chest “Maker guide your path.” And then turned away without waiting for a reply.

She watched him go and sighed. “Well, Katia” She said quietly “Best get moving. Hopefully it’s not too far.”

Rylen walked back to the main camp, looking for the Commander. He frowned, thinking about the woman he’d run into on the road. The longer he thought about it on the walk up, the more suspicious she seemed. Her coat, for one. While not immediately strange was a vibrant blue that stood out. It was not the normal thing someone would wear while out in the woods. He sighed. Her bag was made out of a material he had never seen before in a design he’d never seen before, but what really stood out was the knife at her side. It had the emblem of the templar order on it and she was clearly not a templar.

The frown on Rylen’s face deepened. He walked up to where Seeker Pentaghast, Lady Nightingale, and Commander Cullen were talking over some papers

“- isoner is still unconscious. Solas said it may be tomorrow when she wakes up. He’s done what he can for now.”

“I’ve sent a few scouts up to investigate the temple. They have not returned yet, but I have gotten reports of Demons in the area as well as the things Solas said were rifts to the Fade.”

The Commander sighed, rubbing and hand over the scruff on his chin. “The troops are to ready to move out whenever the need arises. At the moment, I have them looking for survivors, and doing what they can to keep the demons at bay. I have collected lists of people missing-“

Leliana pointed behind him, drawing the Commander’s attention to Rylen. When he turned, Rylen offered a hand over his heart. The Commander nodded. “Ser, I saw someone suspicious on the road. I think you should know about it” He looked over, noting that three pairs of eyes were watching him. “She gave me her name as Katia Markos, strange accent that I couldn’t place.” With that he started telling them about the woman with the Templar dagger.


	2. Lonely, been a crazy day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kleio in Redcliffe. She's now finished her first day in Thedas and she's not dead. Seems like an accomplishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a quick update. Originally the last chapter and this one were one chapter. I decided to break it up a bit, but that means I'm updating today! Woo!

Katia, as she was thinking about herself now, walked for a few hours, watching the people she passed carefully, studying them. If this was going to work, she needed to treat this like any undercover operation. Learn the best way to fit in. Find a way to make money and find out how much things were worth. If she could asses how much coin she had, she could work to establish herself. As it was, people kept looking at her and her coat. It was just too brightly blue colored. She tugged her hood up and watched people from under it.

When she got to the town known as Redcliffe, she walked around. Seeing a fruit vendor, she stopped and asked about fruit, and prices. She bought something relatively inexpensive. It looked like an apple and tasted vaguely apple-like. She could tell more and more people were watching her as she stopped and asked about different food items. When she found a clothier, she picked over things and found a warm leather coat, it took a large portion of the coin she had, but it was necessary. The next place she went was an inn. She asked about their prices and they told her the normal rates, but informed her that all the rooms were full, but there was some room in the stables, if she didn’t mind the horses.

Kleio, she decided, would have minded the horses, though Katia did not. This was a new world and required new things. She had a sleeping bag and tent, but the animals would help alert her to someone approaching. She’d noticed a few pickpockets, she assumed, lurking about, watching her. They were trying to decide if she was an easy mark or not. Katia didn’t feel like she needed more attention at the moment, so she paid the coppers for the stable room and a hot meal, some drink and sat at a table. She took the pea coat off and stuffed it in her bag again, before settling down. She pulled her new coat, still warm, over her shoulders.

She set the dagger down on the table and looked around, mentally taking notes. There were a few different accents at play here. She’d need to keep track of them, if she ever wanted to pretend to be from here. Katia looked up when a tankard was set before here as well as a bowl of stew. “Druffalo stew and an ale.” The server said, looking tired.

A man slid in across from her wearing robes and holding his own tankard. “That’s a nice dagger. You a Templar?”  
  
She frowned and then looked at the weapon. “No. Found it on a body.” Her mind flashed to the man, elf, she’d killed. It was senseless. Why had he attacked her?

“Don’t you think that’s a bit disrespectful to someone who gave their life in service to the Maker.”

Katia sighed. “No. I don’t really. I needed it, and he wasn’t going to use it. I didn’t see anything to ID… identify him.” In truth, part of her felt bad, a large part. “Look, do you need something…?” She felt her bag shift next to her, and turned to look at the boy who was trying to figure out how to get in. The pinch buckles and zipper seemed to have him stumped. “May I help you?”

The kid looked up and into her eyes before yelping and scampering off. She noted the elf ears and tattered clothes as he turned the corner

“Bloody Rabbits…“ the man across from her muttered, down his tankard. “If you look on the blade, you’ll see the name of who it belonged to.” She opened the blade and sighed, seeing a name there.

“I see… Dammit.” The man held his hands out and she put the blade in them, watching.

His brown eyes looked at the name. “Not any of the Templars who were at the Circle at Montsimmard. No one I know. I don’t know if any of the other mages here would be willing to help a Templar.” Mage this world had people called mages and Templars, and elves and dwarves. “I’m Norman, by the way.” He smiled. He appeared to be her age, maybe a bit younger, dark hair, a little pudgy, but in a way that made him look sweet.

“I’m Katia” She returned the smile. “Nice to meet you, Norman.”

“So, where are you headed Katia?” He said taking another drink.

“I think um... I might go to Denerim. Not really sure. I lost my home, recently, so I’m not set on it.”

Norman sighed. “I think we’re bunkering down here, for now. With the Mage-Templar War going on, we have no place to go, really. People are freaked out about the Circles falling, but they don’t know what it was like!” He slammed his fists down, then a blush touched his tanned skin. “Sorry.”

She shook her head, taking a bite of the tough buffalo… druffalo meat, thinking. A war. She’d landed in the middle of a war. Something clearly happened at this Circle Norman was talking about, too. She assumed it was related. “It’s fine.” She said finally, frowning into her food. “What was it like, then at um… the Circle?”

She took another bit of stew and set her spoon down. Katia looked at him, tugging her hair tie out of her hair to run her fingers through it before returning to her stew.

“Oh! It’s stifling. But being out here, it’s a bit.. scary.” He smiled, watching her. “I doubt you know what it’s like, but I’d spent every day since I was nine in the same tower, Templars keeping us in. There were occasionally demons, my roommate turned into an abomination when I was twelve. I still have the scars from it before the Templars saved me.” He pushed up his sleeves. It looked like claw marks. The kind left by a big cat, maybe? Katia winced a little, knowing it was expected in a way. “So, I… guess it left me with an appreciation for the Templars. If they would just let us be free, I would never want to fight with them… but…”

She reached over the table and patted his shoulder. “No one should limit your freedoms. Where… I’m from I was a.. Um.. I did work where I’d infiltrate organizations involved in international human trafficking. Sometimes, I would find people who had been turned into slaves for most of their life. Young and old. They always were a bit scared to be free. That’s a normal feeling.”

The boy. He seemed so young, but here they might see him as a young man. Norman, she ingrained his name into her mind, smiled at her. “Thanks... that’s more comforting than it seems like it should be.”

Katia smiled as someone came to take her bowl and, now empty, tankard. “I’m staying in the stables, so I best go see if I can find a good place to sleep. If you need anything, let me know.”

“Thanks. I wi-… oh!“ he’d picked up the hair tie she’d pulled from her hair. “It stretches. How…?”

Katia smiled and took it from him. “Rubber comes from special trees. It can be used to make things stretchy. It needs to be wrapped in cloth or something to prevent it from catching in your hair.”

He stared at her, eyes wide “Are you a noble? How did you afford something so rare?”

This startled a laugh out of Katia and she shook her head. “No. These are very common where I’m from, and we don’t have nobility, anyway.” He was watching her with fascination, and she sighed. _So much for keeping a low profile until you could figure things out._ She chastised herself. Then, stood, grabbing her bag. “I really must catch some sleep. Thank you for keeping me company while I ate.”

He nodded “Good night.” She started to walk away when Norman called out to her. “Miss! Your dagger!”

She waved him off. “It should go to his family, maybe you can find who that is. Sleep well.” With that, she walked off, to find the stables.

There was a loft, she found, walking in, and it looked like no one was up there, thankfully. A horse stuck it’s nose out to snuff at her clothes. She smiled and pet him. Horses. She’d probably never drive a car again. She would miss her car. She’d just be another person who’d gotten lost in the woods, never to be seen again.

All at once, thinking about the pleasant drive through the Olympic Peninsula, grief hit her. Her eyes stung and the horse who she’d been petting became impossible to see. Sobs wracked her and the horse, the beautiful creature, headbutted her. She dropped her bag with a thump onto the floor as she clung to its neck, bawling as she hadn’t bawled since she was in high school. She grieved the loss of her life, the fact that her sister would think she was dead, her things, her friends that would miss her, her parents she would never see again, her job she’d worked so hard to get, and the man she’d killed here in the woods in this new world. She even grieved for the loss of her car. She was sure she’d heard the door open and close, felt the animal turn, but no one had entered. After a while, she felt exhaustion settle in and pulled away from the horse to stroke its nose. “Thank you. I’ve never met a horse before, but you’re sweet and made a very good impression.” She sniffed and looked up to the loft. “Alright. Let’s get some sleep so we can start again in the morning.”

Katia started up the ladder and proceeded to get her stuff out of her bag. Sleeping clothes, sleeping bag, with her water and the toothpaste tablets she carried with her she brushed her teeth and rinsed, spitting the liquid into a little pile of hay. At that, she settled her bag under her head like a pillow, falling asleep in minutes.


	3. Crush this Charade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katia spends an evening in Denerim and runs into Bull and his Chargers. When she realizes Bull is a kindred spirit, of sorts what will she decide, and how will she survive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to update this on AO3 either the day that I write more, or the following day. We're almost to 28k words and I've hit sex in the unpublished stuff, so, that will be coming. Also, at this point, I also wrote a short blurb of a one off about another person from Earth that is here in Thedas. I should say, that, in this story, there was a chance for some one to come through the breach from our world, so, while I've only, at this point in time, written two of them into the world I have at least 5 floating around in it and they may or may not come in to play, but one, for sure, will. ANYWHO. I just wanted to put that out here. Enjoy!

Katia woke to voices the next morning in the stables below. They were talking about going to someplace called Crestwood. With a groan she got up and stretched, doing some of the Yoga she’d been learning to do recently. It was different than the stretches she’d done growing up as a martial arts kid, but it was soothing in a way she found she needed as an adult. With a smile, she got up and started getting dressed. As she was pulling up her pants, in nothing but her bra, a head popped up over the edge of the loft. She’d never even heard them. Instantly she tensed, ready to fight.

“Shit! I’m sorry! I didn’t hear they’d rented the loft for the night. Maker!” the person, a man who looked to be in his forties, with some face tattoos that she’d noticed seemed more common here.

“It’s fine! Please.” Katia buttoned up the trousers and puller her belt tight around her hips “Come on up I just need to get on my shirt…” She picked up her tank top and made a face as she sniffed it. With a sigh, she pulled the plaid on and stuffed the tank into her bag.

Only after she was covered did the man come up. “Forgive me! I would have checked you were decent, had I known you were up here…” He went to the pitchfork and called to some teenagers below, “You start mucking out the stalls. I’ll toss down fresh hay.”

“Yes, okay!” “I’ll take the left!” “You only want the left because that destrier is mean!” “Yea! Better you get bit than me.”  
  
As she heard the kids get started, Katia started rolling up her sleeping bag. The stable master watched her as she pushed out air with curiosity. She tied it up and pretended not to notice, attaching it to her backpack. With a smile up at him, she pulled on fresh socks and her shoes. “Thank you so much. I’ll get out of your way.” He nodded, pausing his work to let her descend the ladder.

As she started walking down the streets of Redcliff towards the main road, she heard a call from behind her. “Lady Katia! Wait!” It was Norman, running up to her smiling. “Thank you, for talking to me. I’ve decided what I’m going to do!”

“Oh?” She asked with a small smile, watching him bounce in place.

“I’m going to take the dagger and bring it to the Inquisition! They might be able to help, and they’re not Templars... well, not anymore. Plus, I hear they’re trying to fix how mages are treated and I want to be a part of fixing that thing.” He said pointing to the green light in the sky. “And, well, I want to do something meaningful… this is how I think I can do that.”

She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. “I’m glad you’ve found a purpose. Be careful”

Norman nodded. “You too! Stay safe, Lady Katia.” They waved and parted ways, Katia following the sign that directed her towards Denerim.

She had been walking for days when she finally made it to Denerim. She’d washed her clothes, and herself in a river, camped a bit off the road, and seen the sky tremble with green light before it seemed to stop growing more and more green. Part of her wondered about how Norman would hold up at the Inquisition. She’d fished and hunted for her food, refilled and boiled water, letting it cool over night to refill the camelback tucked in a pouch in her bag. She still had well over half of the coins in her bag she’d taken from the Templar.

Walking through the city she noticed people looking at her bag with interests. Mostly, she’d figured out how to ignore them. Katia had gotten used to seeing elves and occasionally a dwarf. Her training kept her from being to outwardly phased by the different animal life they’d had here. She was starting to feel she could get comfortable. The first thing she needed to do, Katia decided, was find a job. With that in mind she headed into a tavern. Slinging booze had gotten her through grad school, she could do it just as well here. As Katia walked to pull the door open, she found herself struck with the shock of her life as she came face to chest with a large man.

“I’m so so..rr…y?” Grey skin. This was new, for sure. Big hands that had steadied her as she hit the firm chest, began to loosen a bit of their hold.

She shifted her bag back in place, and looked up to the man’s face. The panic rising in her chest tightened as her eyes widened with shock at finding a man with massive horns. “Easy. It’s okay.” Katia swallowed and looked up into his eye. “First time seeing a Qunari, hm?”

She opened her mouth to speak and found she couldn’t. Instead she nodded, swallowed, and tried again. “S-Sorry, Yes. F-First time. I don’t mean to be rude, or anything. I just… “She took a deep breath, centering herself. “Yes. It is.” She said looking up at him with a smile half smile, her ears started to burn with embarrassment.

A laugh rumbled deeply from his chest as he let go of her, and they both took a step back. After a moment looking at her with a slightly assessing look, he moved out of the doorway and held a hand out to the tavern “Allow me to apologize by buying you a drink, Lady….” He trailed off waiting for her to finish the sentence.

She smiled and walked in, waving her hands in front of her face. “No, no! I’m not lady, really.” Katia could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure her out. It made her not want to introduce herself, for some reason. As his eyes moved from her light brown hair, brown eyes, slightly olive skin, she took in his eye patch, how it fixed around his horns, some of his scars and how his horns fit into his skull.

“Well, then. Come on. I’ll introduce you to some of my boys and you can relax. You look like you’ve had a long journey.” Bull said after his second assessment. He pulled her over to a table where four other people sat in a circle. “I’m The Iron Bull.”

“Wait THE Iron Bull? Surely that’s not actually your name.” Katia asked, looking up at him.

He grinned “It’s my name now. Don’t you like it? The article makes me seem like a mindless weapon, not even a person.”

She couldn’t help the smile that pulled at her face “And you _like_ that?”

_The_ Iron Bull gave a short laugh as he pulled out a chair, first for her, then for himself. “Yea. I’m the leader of a mercenary group known as Bull’s Chargers. Maybe you’ve heard of them?”

She shook her head and looked around for a place to put her bag before Bull gestured to the space between them. Katia frowned a little and put the bag between them. For some reason, she didn’t want to set it where he could get a close look at it, but it would be even more suspicious not to now that he’d indicated she should. She dropped it with a thunk, draping the bow over the back of her seat.

He pointed to the others at the table. “Krem, Skinner, Brick, and Nugget.” He said pointing to them all.

Giving a friendly smile to cover any suspicions she had and waved for good measure. “Katia Markos! Nice to meet you.”

“This is an interesting bag. All those clasps came apart quickly and I’ve never seen material like this.” He said brushing the top of her bag. “Where did you get it? I want one.”  
  
She fought the tension that filled her, slipping into the mask that she pulled out while working undercover and laughed softly. “That’s what most people say when they see it in action! Truthfully, I have no idea what the material is, but the person I bought it from called it Nylon, whatever that means. It’s pretty waterproof, though!”

“Osprey… is that some organization you work for?”

“Oh! No. It’s the people who made it.” She waved it off, looking at everyone at the table. “So, you all have pretty unique names… is that like… something that happens when you join these Chargers?”

Krem pointed at The Iron Bull “He’s always taking in strays. They like to forget who they were and, I guess, yeah. Someone gives you a nickname If you don’t have one yourself.”

She smiled and nodded “That sounds like a nice environment.” A server came over interrupting before she could say more.

“Can I get you something, Miss?”

Katia nodded and looked up at her. “Yes! I’d love something to eat.”

“We’ve got stew and some roast and rolls if you’d like. Some Roasted veggies, if you want some. What do you want?”

Katia smiled warmly. “I’d like the stew and some bread please. And um… To drink... I guess something without alcohol, if you have it?”

The server raised her eyebrows. “Tea, Miss?”

“Yes please.”

The Iron Bull leaned over and said quietly. “I thought you were going to let me buy you a drink to make up for scaring you.”

“You can make up for it by stopping prying.” She said, catching his eye in a glare.

He smirked and shrugged. “I’m not sure if I can. Everything about you screams ‘Interesting’ and ‘spy.’”

Krem groaned as Nugget giggled. It was high pitched and squeaky. “Now you’ve done it, Chief. She’s not gonna be nice anymore.”

The one called Brick pointed at Bull. “He’as Ben-Hassrath. Means he’s a former spy for The Qun.” He growled “You’ll never be able ta hide yer secrets and calling him out on it just proves ‘im that yer someone ta wotch.”

Katia sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I worked undercover freeing people from Hu—ah… traffickers.” She looked at The Iron Bull and said very firmly, “I won’t say more than that about it. So, don’t ask. And don’t ask me about where I’m from, or where I got anything or anything about my stuff or I’ll walk away and sit with other people.” If she was reading The Iron Bull correctly, this was the best way to get him to stop asking her things. A firm line in the sand.

He grinned at her and held up his hand. “Okay, okay! No more prying, so then, what can we talk about?”

She sighed, thinking, tapping her fingers in a rhythm on the table. “Fighting technique? I guess? Weapons? Um… What you think about this Inquisition I keep hearing about; that’s safe.”

The Iron Bull nodded and Krem leaned on the table. “You know how to fight? Is the bow your preferred weapon?” They looked into her eyes as they took a sip of their own ale.

“Oh? The bow? No. I mean, I… manage. It’s mostly for food. I prefer hand to hand combat, actually. After that, I know how to use a staff and sword much better. I trained a bit in tessenjutsu, or war fans, but even then, they’re kind of… not super useful.”

“War fans?” The Iron Bull, Krem, and Nugget, asked at the same time, making Katia smile.

“Yea! They’re usually iron fans that are sharpened on the end. Some are just one sheet and others collapse. The ones I have…” deep breath “ _had_ are the collapsible kind. And they have cloth between the metal spines, which are sharpened. I used to use them for exhibition matches, but….” She sighed and shrugged. “Things change, you know? I don’t have them anymore, either way.”

They all looked at her with varying degrees of interest. “Exhibition matches, hm? Like th’ shows put on by fighters fer Nobles?” Brick asked.

“I mean… We did it for other people who had studied martial arts, not nobles. That was basically my only interest as a kid.” She smiled and started eating. The bread was tough, so she dipped it in her stew to soften it. “What about you? What do you all fight with?”

“Sword and shield” Krem said “Same” said Nugget “I’m a mage!” grumbled Brick. When Skinner didn’t say anything The Iron Bull continued. “I fight with this, Obviously” He said holding up his massive sword “And Skinner uses daggers.” This earned an eyeroll from the elf who had been glaring at her up until this point. “But under The Qun we trained in most weapons. I’m just so big, I need a big sword, you see.” He offered with his arms outraised, the picture of innocence.

“That’s what she said.” She mumbled.

“What was that?” Bull asked leaning in, trying to see if he’d heard right.

“I… said that’s what she said. It’s a… joke. Like... about what this unidentified woman said in bed? It’s… never mind” A blush touched her cheeks. Humor was obviously not the same here, though The Iron Bull smiled at her.

“I get it!” A man slurred into her ear, as an arm draped over shoulder. “The joke is that He!” he said pointing to Krem “Is a _she._ Hahahaha! Or that This Ox Man is a fu-hiccup- fucking person.” He started guffawing in her ear as the people at that table with her all stilled.

Katia sighed and removed his arm from around her shoulder. “Go away before you regret it, buddy. You’re piss drunk and can’t see the danger.” Skinner looked like she was about to fly across the table and kill the human over her shoulder. The Elf’s hands were on her hilts, the only thing stopping her was Bull’s hands on her shoulder.

“Hic!” He breathed on her face. “Come on… don’t be like that. A pretty girl like you s- hic-should smile! I’d-hic- give you a good time.”

Katia took a big breath, then smiled, standing up “Promise? Well, don’t keep me waiting!” She extracted herself with him and tried to lead him away, but he put a hand to try and grab her and pull her closer. She moved and pulled him forward instead and, using his drunken momentum, flipped him over. The bar went quiet, watching her as the sound of him retching filled the tavern. She sat back down as his friends ran over. She pointed down at the man she’d tossed as they came over yelling. The Chargers at her table tensed.

“Hey bitch, What the hell?” One drew a dagger and Krem and Brick stood up, while The Iron Bull kept Skinner down.

Not even looking up, with one hand, Katia took a bite of stew and the other she waved them off. “He’s sloppy drunk. You should collect him and go. Maybe that will teach him not to touch people without asking.”

“You bitch!” One walked over to her and she picked up her tea, taking a sip, while Krem and Brick stopped another from moving in to.

“Hey!” A man bellowed from the bar. He pointed. “If you’re gonna fight, take it outside!”

“Listen.” The Iron Bull said standing up. “We don’t want any trouble. My friend here just wants to eat. Why don’t we all let it go.” He was trying to make himself look big and intimidating. It was working. The guy took a step back and Katia kept eating calmly. After a few tense moments, the men picked up their friend who had finished retching and walked out of the bar, muttering to each other.

The Iron Bull, Krem, and Brick sat down and Krem clapped her on the back “That was a nice toss. You’ll have to show me how to do it.”

“Oh! Me too!” Nugget called out. “Men always try to grab me like that. It’d be really handy”

Skinner snorted. “Not bad for a Shem…”

That made Katia look up in confusion. “What’s a Shem?” She knew she’d asked something weird when they all looked at her in shock. “What? I’m sorry. I’ve never….”

Skinner sighed and looked away. “Never mind. Don’t talk to many elves, hm?” So much for that. She was clearly annoyed.

“Look, Katia. It’s something elves call humans.” The Iron Bull smiled in a reassuring way. He was so charming, and he had people who trusted him. People who seemed reluctant to trust others. It made her want to trust him. She needed friends here. No one could survive alone.

“How would someone find work?” She blurted out, then sighed, blushing a bit. “I mean. Here in Denerim. I only have the money in my bag and I’m pretty far from home, so I don’t know anyone here… and, I mean…” She trailed off. “I know that came out of left field.” She heard Brick repeat “left field” in confusion from across the table.

The Iron Bull studied her for a long time. “You wanna join the Chargers? Doesn’t have to be for long, but I’m getting the feeling you need help, for some reason.”

Looking sheepish, she nodded. “Yeah. I mean. Yes. I do. I… are.. are you sure?”

Skinner sighed and said “Yeah, he’s sure. He wouldn’t have offered otherwise… If that’s all, I’m going to leave. You can show the shem back to camp.” Without waiting for anyone to acknowledge what she’d said, she started off.

Krem stood too. “I’ll go with you, Skinner, don’t want you to get lost on the way.” They said it good naturedly, but Skinner looked less than pleased, even if she let Krem drape an arm over her shoulders. It made Bull and Nugget smile.

“Now,” The Iron Bull said, pulling her attention back to him. “Let’s talk. If you join with us, you’re going to have to tell me a bit about you. Are you going to be okay with that?” He turned her chair so she was looking in his eye.

She met his gaze and said steadily “Yes. That’s fine, but not here. And I’m not certain you’ll believe me.”

“Don’t worry about getting me to believe you. Just be honest. The rest we can work on” When she nodded, he smiled. “Well, then, Katia. Let’s go introduce you to the rest of The Chargers.” He set some gold down on the table and looked at Brick and Nugget. “You two, clear up our tab and I’ll get her there. See you back at camp.” He reached down and grabbed her bag with a grunt. “This is lighter than I thought it would be. Still heavy, but lighter. Can’t wait to see what you have in here.”

She held her hands out. “Oh, you don’t have to… I can carry it…”

He held a hand up. “It’s fine. I’ve got it. Let’s go.” And he ushered her out, leaving her to wonder what the Chargers would be like and if they would all be as unique as the five she’d just met.


	4. Another Rhyme on Gaia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katia shows Bull and Krem what's in her bag. There are decision made, trusts forged, and explanations had.

“Now that we have stabilized the Breach, we can focus on closing some of the rifts.” Cassandra said with a frown.

Leliana looked up from a report. “My scouts found a dead Templar in the area where Captain Rylen said he found the woman. Their death was very curious.” She pulled out a mess of metal. “This was fished out of their skull and this” She set a brass cylinder that was hollow on one end. “This was found in the area, as well as some signs of a fire pit.” Cullen frowned and picked them up. “Cullen, I think you should smell this and tell me what you think?”

The former Templar took the cylinder and held it to his nose, sniffing. “ _Gaatlok_?” He asked alarmed, recognizing the smell of the Qunari black powder. He’d never forget how Kirkwall smelled vaguely of the powder for months after they’d left.

Leliana nodded, “That’s what Varric said as well. Seems our woman might have been a Qunari spy, but this is a different weapon than we’ve ever seen from them…”

“Do you think they were behind it?” Josephine asked. “This does not seem like the kind of thing they would do. The Qunari are known to be very against demons. So much so that they enslave their mages to avoid it.”

Leliana nodded and looked at the advisors around her. “I think she may have been here to spy on the conclave. There is someone who seemed to have made contact with her in Redcliffe and said she was moving on to Denerim, whatever the cause, we should make sure that we watch the newcomers to Haven for any signs that they may be spies so they can be contained.”

Cullen sighed rubbing his forehead. “Right. I’ll try and keep an eye out. Was the Templar a recruit for the Inquisition?”

Josephine shook her head. “No. They were not anyone we had on record being in the Inquisition.” She smiled. “And we have word that the Herald, as people are calling her, should be awake at any moment. Solas said that the mark has also stabilized. That is good news.”

“Yes” said Cassandra. “We should return to training. Please let us know when she is awake.”

With that, the meeting broke up, though all of them were thinking about this new weapon that the Qun might have developed.

­­__

The Iron Bull and Katia walked into the camp just a bit outside of the city. When they walked up, the two were greeted by catcalls and euphemisms about “riding the bull.” Bull waived them off and said, “Potential recruit you monsters! Don’t scare her off before I get a chance to interview her…” This brought a laugh and people calling that she’d need to get used to Bull’s exploits. It made Katia smile in spite of herself. “When Krem gets here, send him over to me.” He said before leading her off to the side where he started to get a fire together, setting her bag down next to a log that had been set up around a small pit that was clearly meant to be Bull’s alone. He walked over to another log that had been left around, setting it down for her. “Sit.” He said and Katia complied.

Bull got out a flint and set about starting the fire back up. After a few strikes, it still didn’t like. “Damn. This is why I like when Brick is here. He’s the one that usually starts our fires.”

Katia reached into the side pocket of her bag and pulled out a lighter. One of several that she had. She flicked the top and brought it to a twig that she lit and held it out to Bull. He was watching her with interest.

“Handy.” He said, setting the twig to wood that was ready to be relit, having still retained a few embers in its core. He threw the twig into the fire after it was started and watched her for a moment. He eventually held a hand out for the lighter. Which she put in his palm without hesitation.

“This is a lighter. It’s, well. We just throw this kind away when it’s empty, though I have one that is refillable.” She smiled and fished in her bag for another one. “You have to spin the wheel” She demonstrated “and hold down the button basically at the same time.” She showed him.

He attempted to use that lighter, getting it after a few tries. “Clever… “ He said looking at it thoughtfully. The Iron Bull pointed to her bag then looked at her. “What other clever things do you have in there?”

This caused Katia to sigh. “Well… Um. I’m not sure how to start. But first, before Krem gets back, I want to tell you something.” She looked in his eye and he waited, relaxed and patient. “My sister… she’s like him. Transgender. That’s what we call it, at least. She was raised as my brother, but when she went off to college to study, well, she found herself, and I support her completely. I won’t pretend that had nothing to do with my action back at the bar… tavern.” She added the word after a moment. “I wanted to make that clear.”

He smiled at her after she stopped talking. “Good. That’s one thing settled. I had wondered if you were always a hot head… It’s not useful for a spy to get emotional. Anything else?” He prompted as though he could sense there was more.

With a sigh Katia rubbed her face. “Well, The rest of it is complicated. Way more complicated. I’m from far away. And, honestly, the only people there are humans. I don’t know how I got here, or even where here is, but elves, dwarves… those are things we’ve only ever heard about in stories, and all of those are fiction. Never heard of anything like a Qunari, I’m sorry to say, but we don’t have magic or anything. It’s not real, just as elves and dwarves aren’t. No dragons. Not on the whole planet.”

He frowned. “No magic or other races than human?”

“Well,” Katia hesitated, “We haves something we call race, but in the end, everyone in human.”

He looked at her, then the lighter in his hand. “No offense, but that is rather hard to believe.” Bull held up the lighter. “But you have things like this.”

She nodded, “Technology. That we have lots of.” She touched her bag. “The nylon on this is a synthetic material, made in a lab out of chemicals. I have no idea how, but these bags are mass produced and put out for people to use.” She touched the mouthpiece of her water tube. “This is plastic. Another man-made material. It’s the same thing the tube for this is made from, and the buckles on my bag.” She touched the various parts as she talked about them. His hands followed hers. “We have this… we use this too much on Earth.”

“Earth? Is that where you’re from?” He asked looking up from the buckle he was examining.

“I’m from… I live in the city of Seattle, in Washington state. The Country is called the United States of America on the continent of North America on the planet we call Earth.” She explained.

“That’s… So you’re trying to say you’re not from Thedas?” He asked looking her over. Doubt was plain on The Iron Bull’s face. “Pretty hard to believe.”

“If that’s what you call this place. Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.”

“This is the country of Ferelden. And it’s in the lands known as Thedas. What else do you have?”

She sighed, unzipping one of the top pockets on her backpack. Katia pulled out a leather case that she flipped open. “This is my FBI badge. I work for the government. You… the ID on the other side has my photo and my real name. Katia Markos is an alias I use undercover sometimes. I have an ID for that.. well. I had one, but it’s in storage back in Seattle.” She handed it over and her took it, looking the piece of metal, then at the ID.

“That’s a pretty good painting…” He said, tapping it. “There’s no brush strokes.”

“It’s not a painting. It’s printed. If it were light out, you could see the little dots that make up the colors. You can look in the morning. If you can read it, it says United States….”

He looked at her then up as she heard footsteps approach. “Krem! Perfect timing. Take a look at this.” The Iron Bull held up her badge to the man who set a log down next to Katia’s. She tried not to let her apprehension show as Krem looked it over.

“Federal Bureau of Investigations? United States of America…What is this?” He stopped to flip it over as he sat, the fire growing more and more as the sun set behind the horizon. “There’s a painting of you and I see the name you gave us was false, Kleio Natasha Bychkov.” Krem handed it back to Bull. “I’ve never seen anything like that. Could be real, could be fake. Part of some ruse, I suppose.”

Bull handed over the lighter, after flicking it on to show Krem the little flame it made. He took the badge back and went to try and take the ID out. Finding it ridged, Bull made a small “Hmmm. Interesting.”  
  
Krem, meanwhile was trying to get the lighter to work. “I’m used to giving people my alias. I do work undercover, normally. Here. Like this.” Katia said as she leaned over, using her own lighter as an example while Bull was playing with the zipper. She called over to the Qunari. “It’s called a Zipper. That one is kind of special. Keeps the water out. I can show you guys the rest of what I have. You might believe me if you see it. I haven’t seen things like what I have here.”

Krem was still trying to figure out the lighter while Bull pushed her bag to her. “Show me.” He ordered.

Taking it, she started emptying pockets, then the main pocket, dumping it out in front of the fire. Krem picked up her blue coat and started looking at it carefully, examining the stitches. He did this with each piece of clothing while Katia started explaining most of her hiking gear to Bull. She was showing him her pocketknife when Krem spoke up, finally, examining her bag. “This thing really is amazing… It’s so light, but it’s ridged and comfortable….” He had the thing on his shoulders and clicked the buckle that went across the chest in place. “How do I get out, though?”

Katia leaned over and showed him how to pinch buckles.

“Amazing!” He smiled, doing it a few times. “And the waterskin inside with this tube… that’s brilliant.” Krem was clearly impressed. “So, you’re supposedly from another world, is that it?”

Katia nodded and pointed up at the moons “Where I’m from we have one moon and we’ve walked on it.” Krem raised an eyebrow, and Katia continued. “Not with magic, with Rockets and technology. A lot of people died on their trips up, and it causes your bones to decay and your head to swell. There’s no gravity, you see, so your body just… atrophies.”

“Atrophies?” He asked “What’s that?”

“It means wastes away.” She smiled, then she saw Bull bend over to pick up something that she’d thought she’d cleaned out. “Please be careful with that, Bull… Keep it away from the fire. Sorry. I didn’t know that was in there, or I would have gotten rid of it already.”

He held it up, looking at it in the light, holding it gently in between his fingers. “What is it?” An eye looked over to her, assessing her carefully.

“It’s part of a weapon from my world. It’s better that people don’t find out about this technology. That’s… called a bullet, well, that’s a cartridge, but it’s easier to call it a bullet. You put it in this… thing and the top part, which is actually the bullet shoots out from the case… This bottom part here. The bullet… this particular one, is portable and is used for defense against people. It’s triggered when this little nub here, gets pushed in and ignites the gunpowder inside.”

“Gunpowder?” The Iron Bull asked “What’s that?”

Krem was listening with a frown. He did not like the sound of this

“Well,” Katia sighed, “It’s also known as black powder, because it’s, well, Black. But it’s a mixture of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter. It sparks and then explodes. Basically. The case sends the force of the explosion to the bullet and it shoots out.” She looked up from the bullet to see Bull with a deep frown on his face.

Bull brought the bullet to his nose and sniffed, “Vashedan!” He said softly and handed it over to Krem who also smelled it.

“Gaatlok? You’re not gonna tell them about this, are you?” Krem watched Bull carefully. Katia was suddenly very nervous about where this conversation was going. She held her hand out for the cartridge that Krem easily gave back, though he kept his gaze on Bull.

The Iron Bull sighed and looked over to Katia. “What kind of damage does this thing do?”

Katia didn’t answer for a long time before she tapped the metal bracers Krem wore. “This armor, your chest plates, your helmets, probably even your shields, this would tear through them, maybe crack them. Some might cause the bullets to shatter, but mostly, they’d be utterly useless. The wood shields, they might block it a bit better, only because they’re thicker.” She looked down. “It can go all the way through a human… a person’s body and into another one.

You don’t... want to know what that looks like. Some of them can tear you apart. I have one that’s issued by my job and I was required to keep it on me, or locked up in a gun safe, at all times. That’s why I had it with me when I was brought here.

The more I think about it. The more I wonder if any of this “ She gestured to her stuff “ Had anything to do with the breach.” She looked up at the green swirl in the sky. “How it connected our worlds, I can only speculate, but I would not see your world have wars that are built around making killing as easy as possible as mine has become. If I could do my job without it, I would.”

Bull let her talk until she trailed off in thought. “So, you’re saying it would be very bad if this was made known…” She nodded, causing The Iron Bull to sigh. “I have to tell you, The Qun, I’m not actually former Ben-Hassrath. I’m still work for them, posing as a defector that runs a mercenary band. I send reports about what’s going on down here and my boys, a lot of them, know that. _Gaatlok_ is made up of similar ingredients, from what I can tell, though we keep it hidden, and only a few know the secret to the formula. I’m trying to decide what, if anything, I should tell them about you. You really put me in a rough spot. Which is fine!” He rushed to add as she opened her mouth to apologize. “I just need to figure out what to tell them.”

With a sigh Krem shot Bull a scowl. “Chief, come on, you can’t be serious. This would just push them to invade. Think about Tevinter, or Northern Thedas! They would invade. You know it! _Fasta vass_!” He continued, switching language. “ _You can’t be serious! If they found out you had someone from another world, with advanced technology who worked undercover?! There’s no way they wouldn’t want to convert her to The Qun!_ ” He continued in Italian, which, while not fluent, Katia was able to follow fairly well.”

“ _I don’t want to convert or be given to any nation.”_ Katia said in Italian, standing and getting ready to fight, if she had to.

“Peace.” Bull said in common, his tone soothing, and he motioned with his hand in a way that told her to relax, something she found hard to do, but she tried, sitting again. “So, you can speak Tevene? That’s an option….” He said thinking.

“Tevene? I that what you call what we just spoke? I would call it Italian. I also speak Latin, Greek and Russian. Though I speak Greek and Russian fluently. My father was Russian, and my grandmother was Greek.”

Bull made a small, soft sound. “Hmmm. Will you use them? We can see what, if anything, is their equivalent here.”

“Ah… sure. Hmm. Russian first then. _When work is a pleasure, life is a joy!”_ She quoted in Russian, “ _When work is a duty, Life is slavery.”_ She smiled and looked at them. “Anything?”

“If that’s a language, I don’t know it.” said Bull. “Interesting.”

Katia continued in Greek next. “ _My return home is lost, but my glory will never die._ ” She smiled at this one “It’s from an epic poem called the Illiad. I don’t know the ancient Greek, but my mother always said that that line is why she named me Kleio.”

Bull smiled and shook his head. “Ander. Or close to it. I don’t speak it well, but what I do speak was enough to cover most of what you said. Enough that you could figure out that your name means Glory, hm? That’s a pretty big name. You have one more language?”

She nodded and smiled some “Please continue to call me Katia… I… need to warm up to having people use my name. I can go on here if I’m ”

Krem sighed and looked down, as Bull muttered an agreeance. “I think we should tell people she’s from Tevinter…” He didn’t look happy about it.

Bull held up a hand and waved “Let’s here the last one, then? We can decide after that.”

“Well,” Katia said. “It’s similar to Italian… T-Tevene? It’s the language it came from. They use it in churches, religious centers where I’m from.” She proceeded to say “ _May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit._ ” She cringed after she said it. “My parents want u- wanted us to follow their religion. It never clicked with me, but Latin is used often in it. This is something my grandmother said all the time when she prayed. Anyway. I’m an atheist.”

Krem and Bull looked at each other and sighed. “Ancient Tevene.” Bull said. “They don’t use it often. Mages Mostly.”

“Well. I’m going off to the Inquisition tomorrow, but after we meet back up on the storm coast, I’ll help you get familiar with this world.”

Bull nodded. “Right. I think I’ll tell the Qun I met a strange girl from Tevinter. Probably the daughter of a merchant. You can pass off as a merchant. You have nice things, your hands are soft, and we can play the sheltered-daughter-who-ran-away, angle. I’ll hold off on telling them about your weapon. I don’t really see how it would help too much, anyway. As for your skills in fighting, you acquired that after you left, learning to fight to work to free slaves before they made it to Tevinter. How does that sound?”

She was nodding, paying close attention to his words. When he mentioned slaves, Katia looked up. “Slaves? They have _slaves?_ ” She gaped. “That’s barbaric! A violation of the rights of the individual! Personal liberty is-!” She stopped herself short and grumbled. “Yeah, okay that sounds good. I can’t believe they have fucking _slaves_ here….”

Krem laughed a little. “That’s how most Southerners feel about it. It’s pretty bad. Elves are slaves, and occasionally people who do not have magic. Without magic, you’re nothing, basically. Some wealthy people do okay, but small family trades are largely put out by slave labor.” Krem looked away uncomfortably.

Katia sighed and looked away, too. “Slavery is illegal in my country, but it still exists, just in a different form. Largely it’s people who are smuggled into the country and hidden away, or… even more commonly… there’s a rather large market for sex slaves. Women, children… “ She sighed. “My city is one of the major ports for the industry…” She looked down at her stuff. “Where.. um.. should I sleep?” She asked wanting to change the subject. Her last case had been really hard.

Bull looked around at her stuff. “Do you have a tent in this stuff?” She nodded and pointed to a small vibrant blue bag. “It’s not the warmest. It was still summer where I was, but I’ve been using it.”

The Iron Bull smirked “Well. You’re welcome to share with anyone who has a spot open. I do, or Krem does. I’d stick with one of us for the night, but when the rest of the boys get to know you, it should be okay. We just need to work out your story first.”

She looked over her stuff and started putting it back in her bag. “I’ll… “ She looked between The Iron Bull and Krem. “I think I’ll go with Krem.” She looked at him and smiled. “We can discuss my cover more, come up with some ideas before you leave. My It-Tevene is not fluent. It’s not bad, but there’s room for improvement.”

Krem smiled some. “Great. Well, let’s get your stuff together. You and I can talk in Tevene to get you used to it more. I have some ideas, I’ll let you discuss them with the Chief in the morning when I head off.”

“Perfect.” She held a hand out to The Iron Bull standing up. “Thank you, for giving me this opportunity, and for your help.” Bull took her hand and she gave it a little bob. “I look forward to give you and your Chargers my support.”

Bull looked over at Krem and smiled. “See. Respect. This is how you show respect.”

“Your head is already too big with those horns coming out of it. I’d hate for it get any bigger…” Krem smirked. “Don’t worry. Soon she’ll be kicking your ass. I can’t wait to see her drop you like that guy at the bar.”

This made Katia laugh. “ _That_ sounds fun! Well! Sleep waits for no man! Or Woman! I’m tired from days of walking to Denerim…”

“Yea, yeah.. let’s go.” He let her off, leaving a thoughtful Bull in their wake.

Right before Katia and Krem crawled into a larger tent, Bull called out to camp. “Hey!” He bellowed and the camp went quiet, listening for their commander. “We’ve got a new member. Name’s Glory!” He pointed over to Katia who groaned, rubbing her face. “We leave for the Storm Coast in the morning! Got word of some Vint slavers there! Let’s break in our new blood!” A cheer went up in camp. “Get some sleep and get ready to head out first.”

With those orders, the camp busied putting things away. In the dark of the night, as people got to sleeping, Krem and Katia sat in a tent with a lantern burning, talking in Tevene about what life in Tevinter was like, until one of them fell asleep in the middle of their conversation. Their light was one of the last ones out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your Comments. they mean a lot to me! This one I edited the most so far, and I know some of the later chapters there will be MORE. But like.... Yeah! It's alllll good. 
> 
> Name: Kleio Natasha Bychkov aka Katia "Glory" Markos


	5. Made Peace Out of the Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chargers are hired.

Krem had just left the Herald who went to talk to her advisors. The Nobel made her way through the Chantry and looked at the three she’d just left. “I might have something that will interest you. I just spoke with someone about their mercenary band. Bull’s Chargers, have you heard of them?”

Leliana looked up from her clipboard and “They mostly work in Orlais and Nevarra. Their Commander is The Iron Bull, supposedly Tal Vashoth, though I’ve had some reports that he may still be an active member of The Qun.”

Cullen sighed and looked over Leliana “Great. This isn’t suspicious at all….”

Cassandra gave a slight shrug. “I hear they are capable though. The Inquisition could use more fighters. Are we going to recruit them?”

The woman known as the Herald of Andraste sighed. “I think so. They want us to meet them on the Storm Coast. I’ll be heading out tomorrow, I think. We’ll take you, Cassandra, if you don’t mind, Madame de Fer, and, maker save us, I want to take Sera to see what she can do.” They all nodded.

“On your way back, I might recommend stopping by to find Warden Blackwall. It could really help us to have a Grey Warden on our side.” Leliana said.

The Herald nodded. “Thank you, Leliana, I will do that. Send a raven if you need to keep me informed about anything else. Also, If the... astronomer, Vicki has any new information.”

“We will, Lady Trevelyan. Have a safe trip if we do not see each other before you leave.” Said Josephine with a smile. The Herald nodded before exiting the war room and, making a brief stop to talk to Vivienne about their plans to leave in the morning before exiting the Chantry.

__

Katia was learning how to adjust her previous sword training to the sword that Bull’s Chargers had found for her. Her Kenjutsu training from her youth had always included a wooden sword, and it had never been what she’d been most interested in. She was still very, very much a beginner. She’d preferred Judo, Karate, and Taekwondo, everything else had only been learned when teachers had suggested she try them. Judo had come out as a strong favorite as an adult, though she’d dabbled in a few other styles, but never anything too serious. She had added Yoga one morning a week in the Yoga studio beneath her apartment. Hand to hand had come in handy at her work so keeping up with it was important. If she ever got back to Seattle, she was going to add using a bladed weapon of any kind.

At first, people had made fun of her form, as she kept trying to use the long sword as if it were a two handed weapon, but then, when it came time to show The Iron Bull some of her hand to hand skills, and she’d sent him flying, the teasing stopped. She felt more comfortable with daggers, but was trying to try out other things. Daggers, at least, she could relate to tessen fighting, which she had spent more time on. Now, though, all the Chargers wanted Glory to teach them how to throw the big Qunari man, too. 

“I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get Bull right away, but most of you will probably be able to drop him eventually.” She smirked at Bull, having relaxed into the less formal name that most of the Chargers used for The Iron Bull. Bull or Chief was usually what is people called him. Occasionally there was someone who called him Iron Bull. It was getting easier to relax. After Krem left, she moved into Bull’s tent.

Some people implied that she and him were intimate, but that wasn’t something she was even entertaining at the moment. She needed to be settled more before she could open herself up to even thinking about romance. Bull, however, took every opportunity to flirt with her. Not that she was special. He flirted with most who let him get away with it. “No offense, Katia.” He said taking her hand as she held it out to help him up. “But I prefer to end up on my back other ways. Usually it involves less clothes.”

Katia smiled and gave a shrug. “Well, you make it too easy. You’re half dressed already. Some people like to unwrap others as if they were a gift.” She smirked.

“Well,” He countered, on his feet again. “I assure you. The package you’d unwraps is big enough that it’s practically the same. I have to accommodate you tiny humans when you show interest. Everyone else appreciates the view.”

Katia rolled her eyes and was about to ask her trainees to show her the forms that made up the throw when one of their scouts came running over, followed by another. “Chief!” The first one called out. This was a dwarf that came to a stop next to her. “We’ve found some more Vints along the coast. Approximately a mile west of here, then up on the beach.”

The next, a human, came in at a more leisurely pace. Bull waited to hear them out before saying anything. Everyone in camp was watching the exchange, though some had started packing their bags. “Krem has been spotted walking with someone with a glowing hand. He’s broken off and is heading our way. By all descriptions, the person with the glowing hand is this Herald of Andraste we’ve heard so much about.”

Bull took them all in and then gave a nod. “Gear up. We’ll move out after we clean the coast, either with the Inquisition or on to our next job. Be ready for Krem to get here. As soon as he arrives, we will begin our march on the Vints.” He turned to Katia. “Will you go scout them out? Make sure they aren’t catching a boat before the inquisition get here. I’ll roll up your bedroll and see to your things, if you’ll trust me to it, but I think you’re our best bet to understanding what they say.”

Katia nodded and touched his arm “Thanks, Bull. I’ll see to it.” She smirked some. “It will be fun to try my hand at this.” With that she tied the laces on her boots, grabbing two daggers that were in the company’s spare weapons and leaving the sword she was still less than comfortable with. The daggers would be more useful as tools, though, utility. She draped a length of rope over her head, slipping her arm through.

As she set off, she flashed everyone peace signs and said “Have fun boys!” Then she turned around and walked towards where the scout said the Tevinter were. She kept to the tree line trying to avoid making too much noise. It was easier said than done, but it wasn’t too bad.

All of a sudden, though, she heard voices, talking in Italian... Tevene. “We have a shipment of slaves collected in between Crestwood and here. A few of them were mages, others were people fleeing the fighting in The Hinterlands where the Inquisition has been operating.” A refined voice said to his companion. Katia moved to stand behind a large tree, listening to them and their footsteps.

“Wonderful. We could use more slaves to work the mines outside of Hundred Pillars… the mages will be good there. These southern mages are poorly educated, but will be of use there, or a Magister may want to take one for a pet, you know?”

“Hahah! Yeah! They will be coming in today up the coast. I thought you’d be pleased to hear about it. When will the boat be ready for us to cast off?”

“It will be best for us to leave tonight. The seas will be more calm, not that their ever particularly calm here,” Katia tried to breathe as quietly as possible. Tonight. They had to act tonight, or they would miss their chance and people would end up being taken away to be forced into slavery. Her hands shook with the desire to act now, but Bull had said that the Vints, as he called them, used mages a lot, and she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to deal with magic, especially not on her own. They started down the hill, out of Katia’s ear shot, asking a question about the journey and how long it would take to load from one boat to another. She didn’t hear the answer.

After a one hundred count, heart still racing with anticipation, Katia went back to the cliff she’d been aiming for where she could over look the camp of Tevinter. She laid down, sticking some twigs with leaves in her hair as she looked down on them. Every so often she could hear one or two of them calling out across camp, they were clearly getting ready to leave. She heard a horn call from the direction of the camp of Chargers, and within moments, the Tevinter camp was being invaded by fifty or so odd Chargers. She was about to get up and join them, when she heard foot steps behind her.

She pulled the daggers out and came face to face with an elf with a bow, arrow knocked and ready to fire, a human with a staff, another with a Sword and shield, and another with a sword and dagger, as well as a glowing green hand. The Mark. This could only be the Herald. She put her weapon away first and relaxed, pulling twigs from her hair. “Right. You must be the Herald we’ve heard about. I’m with Bull’s Chargers. They just started the fight. I was about to join them.”

The Herald relaxed, and slowly so did the other woman with a sword. The woman with a staff had made no move to attack her and didn’t need to relax, but the Elf kept her bow ready. “Please, call me Breanna. Breanna Trevelyan. I have enough calling me Herald.”

This made Katia smile. “I’m known as Glory amongst the Chargers.” She didn’t want to be someone these people would pay attention to, but she liked this woman. She even liked that this elf _still_ had her bow on her. She sent her a wink. “Shall we go? I don’t want to miss out on some fun killing slavers.” She added in Tevene “ _Let’s go.”_

She started off without waiting for them, practically running down the ridge and into the fray. She drew her daggers and said loudly “ _Filthy Slavers!!”_ In Tevene, coming up behind them. A mage turned after throwing fire in the direction of a few Chargers. They were met with a knife across their throat as Katia moved on to the next one.

Three more fell to her blade and two more were tossed into other Chargers who killed them, while others lost their weapons only to meet their end as Katia moved on. Eventually, there was no one left but one marked with much nicer armor than the others. Katia moved to him, recognizing him as one of the two she’d met walking in the woods. She watched Bull, talking to Herald. She whistled and motioned for Krem to come over. “What do you need?” He asked coming over in a jog.

“ _This one,”_ she said in Tevene, causing the man to glare at her, then Krem, _“Was saying there’s a shipment of slaves on the way from Crestwood with one of the mages along the coast. We need him to tell us the signal.”_ A smile was turned from where she was talking to Krem to the man’s face. “You’ll tell us, or we will find out the hard way. Believe me when I say, you don’t want us to use the hard way….”

He spit on her and Krem punched him. Katia wiped her face clean, then smeared the spit back on the man being held down in front of her who groaned. Krem grabbed his chin and said, “The hard way it is, then. Unlucky for you, our Chief was Ben-Hassrath.” She watched the blood drain from the man’s face and her and Krem exchanged a smirk. One of the men holding her guy gestured for her to give up the rope which she did and then flung her arms around Krem’s neck. “Wa? Okay. Yes. Hello.”

“I’m glad your back. You missed me throw Bull a lot!” Krem patted her back and pulled away with slight blush on his cheeks.

“Well, you’ll have to show me, then.” Someone rushed over to Krem, ax in hand.

“Lieutenant! We just opened their wine! It’s time to celebrate!” A cheer went up as people magically produced cups, many that already had wine, from what she could tell. Krem nodded and made his way back to Bull who was talking to the Herald.

Katia tuned back to the man who was staring off into space. “Why don’t you tell me what you know, then we can skip the whole torture thing. It’s always so unpleasant.”

He looked up at her, frowning. “You would say that, traitor? Please, then you will just kill me.”

Katia shrugged. “I won’t do anything. I’m not your judge and jury. I care only about saving people. Without the proper signal, your people may just kill those they’ve taken.” He studied her for a moment before sighing and looking away.

“Unbroken slaves are tough cargo at the best of times… “ He said, then looked at her. “You will argue for my life.”

Katia shrugged and then thought, after a few moments, she agreed. “Alright. After they’re safe, I’ll make a case for you. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.”

He nodded. “Alright. The signal is two quick fire balls in the air then a pause, and another.”

She nodded and patted his cheek. “Hope you’re not lying. If we can save the people they’ve taken, it may help you.”

He nodded. “All it took was me betraying my countrymen…”

She walked over to Krem who said “Well, anything?”

Katia nodded, “Yes, the signal, if he is telling the truth, is two quick fireballs in the air, a pause, then one more. He’s asked we consider leniency for his cooperation.” Krem made a face, which Katia nodded. “I’m considering this, me making the case for him that I promised. No one will listen to me, but you stand a chance. If you don’t think it will make any difference, I trust you to understand that.”  
  
Krem nodded. “I’ll mention it to the Chief. Probably, he’ll still decide to kill him” She nodded. “But I’ll let him know that he was trying to bargain, also that you’re trusting our decision. Thanks for letting me know.”

“I’m not sure what do, now, I have to confess…”

This made the man laugh “Understandable. We’ll go through their stuff for anything that may be important. You should look for things in Tevene, meanwhile I-“

“Krem!” Came Bull’s voice and Katia slipped off to look for what she could find “Tell the men to finish drinking on the road. The Chargers just got hired!”

“What about the casks, Chief? We just opened them up. With axes!”

“Find some way to seal them,” Bull ordered. “You’re Tevinter, right? Try Blood Magic.” At this Katia cackled from where she was digging through some papers. “We’ll meet you back at Haven.”

Krem walked up to him and started talking a bit quietly, finalizing their travel arrangements. Katia watched the exchange, setting aside a few papers already she thought someone might have use for. After a bit, Bull walked up to her. She met his gaze and smiled some. “So… um.. You’re leaving?”

He smirked at her. “Yes. Don’t tell me you’re already attached to me?”

Katia smiled “Well, what can I say? You’re kind of like warts that way.”

He grinned. “You’ll be fine. This will give you a chance to work out a story with Krem before you get to the Inquisition. Anything you need for me to know before I get there…?” He could tell she’d been hiding something, but this would be her last chance before he was gone.

She looked at the papers in front of her a moment before sighing and looking up. “When I first got here, someone tried to take me from behind with an arrow. A-a templar. I shot him. I don’t think it was far from where the Inquisition is… I shot him with a bullet. I didn’t know I was in a world without them at the time… I just saw an arrow fly by me from behind and a-an elf holding it. I ran into another Templar along the road there. There’s a chance they’ve found them. It wasn’t far from the road, anyway….”

Bull looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “It’s very possible they found him, then… I’ll see what I can do, if anything.” He put a big hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Thank you for trusting me. Try not to worry, okay?”

Katia nodded. “Also, I gave him the name Katia… like I did you. So… I introduced myself to the Herald as Glory. Guess I know why your nicknames stick.”

He smirked. “I could always call you Kleio….”

She waved him of. “Go, get out of here! If you take any longer, you’ll start rumors. Not that I’d be upset about it, but it’s better to not fuel needless trouble.”

Bull smiled and held out his hands like one does for a hug. “Are you sure? I give great hugs.”

After thinking about it for a moment, she sighed and threw her arms around him. “Between you and Krem I’ll avoid getting touched starved, at least. It’s good to have, ya know, friends.”

She was squeezed tight by huge muscles. “At least you know that you need touch to survive. I’ll see you when you get to Haven. Don’t worry.”

Katia nodded when he let her go. “Have a safe trip.” And then she went back to going through the parchments, keeping them dry as much as possible. The man, as it turned out, was telling the truth, but was still killed for being a slaver. Apparently, that was the typical punishment for that crime in Thedas, and Katia had a hard time feeling bad about that, or about the other people killed on the boat, when they boarded to free those abducted into slavery. Many of those saved wanted to return home, which the Chargers were happy to supply escort to the general area, a few of them, though, we happy to follow the band to Haven to join up with the Inquisition. Between the supplies the Tevinter slavers had, and the boat, which they left adrift in the sea after cleaning it out of any information or supplies that may be useful, the Bull’s Chargers had enough clothes for Katia to now have three changes of clothes that looked completely normal in Thedas and rather nice daggers as well as leather armor which, though mismatched, made her feel better whenever they had to fight anyone.

Krem and Katia stayed up talking about Tevinter, the culture, and working out her cover. Between those talks and some books, which Katia had taken to reading on horseback, she was learning more about Thedas. The horse had been her reward from Krem for getting the information that led to saving both the abducted people and the animal, as well as a few more, and a chest of gold that would go to helping maintain the company’s equipment and keep them fed.

The Books were in Common, as she’d learned English was called, as well as Tevene. Their genres varied and a large number were printed in Tevinter. There were a few about the Champion of Kirkwall, which every assured her she needed to know about. Those books, people asked her to read aloud, and usually, she had a large circle of people around her as she read. A large percentage of The Chargers, she’d learned, didn’t know how to read, though most knew a decent amount, and she was more than happy to oblige them. When they broke camp people always shoved her off to the side and gave her warm water with tea and honey, to save her throat, refusing to let her do anything to set up. They insisted, so long as she would read to them, they would set up camp for her.

When she asked Krem about it, he said that it was because she was so good at reading. A lot of people, himself included, struggled over some words, and when there was a word people didn’t understand, largely, she could tell them what it meant, and, he said, she did voices.

Katia smiled and shook her head. “I feel bad, though….”

This was met with a shrug. “After camp is up you teach them hand to hand fighting until the sun goes down, trust me, you do your fair share. Wait for them to start buying books for you to read. Wait for them to be smutty.”

Katia laughed. “That will be funny. I’ll be looking forward to lots of unrealistic sex stories. At least they’re not doing it while we have children with us.”

Krem nodded. “They’re a decent lot. Some of them even have kids back home. A few will take some time off after we get to Haven to go visit their family. That’s always what happens when we take a longer job.”

She nodded. “I still struggle to understand what a gold is compared to a silver to a copper to, like, say, a horse or bread or clothes…” She sighed, trailing off. “Will you help me, if you can, when I need to go shopping?”

Krem nodded. “Of course. Now, do you mind if we go to sleep? I started my monthlies today and they always wipe me out….”

Katia let Krem sleep, though she, struck suddenly in night by the loss of her world and loneliness, laid awake for a while, trying not to wake Krem up as she cried. It was well after the fire outside of their tent went out when she stopped crying. This left her exhausted and she was finally able to sleep. At least she hadn’t woken Krem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lemme know what you think. I can't wait for you to get to the romance stuff. I feel so bad because I'm always roughly 20k words ahead of what i have here, and I want to share it but like.... I will keep pumping out work if I don't let myself catch up. So, Delayed gratification it is.


	6. Someday You Will Find Your Place in the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Chargers get to the Inquisition while the Herald is out.

Breanna Trevelyan was pleased with The Iron Bull. He had not been boasting when he said that she would be getting a front-end bodyguard. She still didn’t know how she felt about him working for The Qun still, but her mind kept wondering what it meant that he was Ben-Hassrath. He’d mentioned it right away, of course, but it still left her wondering what exactly that meant. And there was Leliana’s warning that The Qun might be behind the attack on the Temple of Sacred ashes, though, it seemed more likely that it was someone from the same place as that girl who’d been talking to Solas. They may never find her at this point in time.

“So Boss,” Bull said with glance down. “I received word that my boys made it to Haven.”

Breanna smiled and put her hand on her daggers. “Well, we’ve now got Warden Blackwall with us.” She nodded to the older Warden who smiled warmly and nodded back.

“To Haven, then?” the posh voice of Vivienne asked, looking at the hem of her robes. Sera shifted uncomfortably, looking at the woman, though she said nothing.

Cassandra nodded once and beaconed the group in the direction of the road to Haven. “This way, then. We should reach Haven by tomorrow afternoon if we hurry.” The team of, mostly warriors followed her lead, while the Herald and Sera took rear and forward scouting positions. Everyone was eager to get back.

__

Bull’s Chargers had passed the spot Kleio was sure led to where her things were buried a mile back. She turned her horse and backed off, looking into the woods in that direction, but, after one of the Chargers, Fern, called out to her, she pulled her focus away. Fern had wanted to ask her something simple about what a word meant in Anders. Once she answered she went up to join Krem who was talking to Dalish. Kleio didn’t say anything, only vaguely listening to them planning out their training schedules while in Haven, how they were going to rotate teams in the field and who was taking leave, when and for how long.

As she turned back from looking over her should, trying to mentally place how far away from her things she had traveled once again when she jumped realizing Krem was calling her name with increasing volume. “…. -ammit. Glory! KATIA!”

“Sorry, What, Lieutenant?” She jumped, looking up.

Krem frowned and asked Kleio “What’s wrong? You keep looking over your shoulder, and I called your name a few times…. If there’s something off, we need to know in case of an ambush.”

That sent a jolt through her. Katia. Kleio was back in the woods buried. Katia. Krem had been calling Katia. “Oh. No. I-It’s nothing. Sorry. Memories. Personal stuff. I was lost in thought.”

The Tevinter man looked her over for a few moments before nodded. “Are you open to training some of the troops on rotation? You’ll go into the field with them, but not as often.”

Katia nodded with a smile. “I’m at Bull’s Charger’s disposal. Use me how you want to.” This caused Krem to snort and he opened his mouth to reply when a bird cried overhead. It was the crow the Chargers used to communicate when they were not traveling as a full unit. Bull’s reply.

Krem read it, while everyone watched on. “He’ll be coming with the Herald tomorrow afternoon. We should be at Haven shortly. Let’s get settled as best we can so he doesn’t scold us!” This brought a cheer and seemed to fill the company with new energy. They all wanted Bull to be proud of them. The Chargers all looked up to him and trusted him. It was incredibly heartwarming to Katia who had lost everything. She was glad, not for the first time, that she has found them and been accepted into their circle. They were all good people.

After a bit and about four miles, if she was measuring correctly, from where they’d passed the area her things should be in, they were stopped by some soldiers. “What is your name and business with Haven?”

Krem smiled and hoped down from his saddle, going to his bags and pulling out some documents. They were letters written by Lady Cassandra, The Herald Breanna Trevelyan, and The Iron Bull. All of them declared that Bull’s Chargers had been requisitioned to be hired to work as a militia force for the Inquisition. The guards read them over a few times and then, nodded, waved the company through.

They clambered up into the high valley where Haven was nestled between some mountains and came upon an area where troops were training in front of what appeared to be a village. The whole valley, practically, was covered in tents. Katia was still at the front with Krem, though Dalish had slipped back to be replaced up front with Stitches and Rocky. Stiches, Rocky, Grim, Dalish, and Skinner seemed to be the leaders of their various unofficial sub factions within The Chargers and seemed to take their orders from Krem, though everyone else would take orders from them. Stiches lead the healers and support, Rocky lead the few dwarves the company had and helped with munitions, Grim worked mostly with the scouts and rouges, as they were called, Dalish lead the Archers and mages, though she refused to allow anyone to call her a mage, a distinction that allowed her to have the trust of non-magic users, though she undoubtably used magic and had her own lieutenants. Skinner led the Elves who trusted her completely to protect them from Shems. People who fell into multiple categories listened to what ever person they felt needed their help, unless someone specifically asked for them. No one knew where to put Katia yet, though the fact that she’d become somewhat of a trainer led her to be thought of as a leader, though not one they would necessarily look to in a battle situation. So, no one knew how that was going to look within the structure of the company, though. For now, she was seen as Krem’s student and that was that.

The four Chargers walked over to the two men who’d come forward to greet them. Krem stood in the front, and Katia lurked just to his left and Stitches to his right. Rocky stood back in front of the rest of the Chargers acting, as usual, as a protector when Bull and Krem were away.

“Ah!” Said the blonde as Krem walked over, adjusting his riding gloves. Both men held hands out to shake in a friendly greeting. “You must be Bull’s Chargers. It’s happy tidings that have you here. We’ve heard word of your journey here from our agents along the road. You made great time. I’m Cullen Rutherford, Commander of the Inquisition’s troops. This is Captain Rylen, my second in command.” He gestured to the man next to him.

“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Cremisius Aclassi. You can call me Krem. I’m the Lieutenant of Bull’s Chargers.” Krem had the vague sense that Katia was trying to put Krem between her and the men in front of him. It was concerning, but he didn’t realize what the cause of that might be until Cullen brought his attention to Rylen who was staring the woman down. _Venhedis._ Krem forced a smile and said cheerfully. He pointed to the man on his right. “These are two of my officers Stitches and Glory.” He said using her Nickname within the company. “Rocky is back a bit”

Out of the corner of Krem’s eye he saw the woman give a small bobbed curtsey like he had drilled her on, and a meek “Pleasure to meet you both.” While Stitches just nodded.

Rylen held a hand out. “Katia Markos, wasn’t it? I’m glad I get to see you again.” Krem swore again in his head while the Commander’s head snapped over to his second then to Katia who had stilled but was no longer trying to hide.

“Did you say Katia, Captain Rylen? You mean the woman you found in the woods on the road to Redcliffe after the breach opened?”

Katia sighed audibly then stepped out from behind Krem, and said cheerfully. “Yes, Hello! Nice to meet you again. I didn’t think you would remember. Thank you for your help that da- ah!”

Before she could finish the Commander was tugging her forward and looking her over. Finally, his eyes settled on the end of her braid and the bright pink tie that held it together. He then looked up into her eyes. Stitches and Krem had both taken a step forward, but a subtle motion from Katia had kept them still, though clearly ready to defend her.

The Commander, with Rylen behind him, eyeing them down sighed and rubbed his eyebrows. “We’re happy to have you all here. We have a few questions to ask you, Katia, if you don’t mind. They involve the days before the breach was stabilized. Will you answer our questions?”

Katia looked into his honey eyes first, and then turned to look at Krem. “If Krem is there and agrees to me speaking to you…. Of course. He is my commanding officer after all.” She wanted to say they should wait until Bull got there, but she didn’t dare be the one to suggest it. If she was on the Commander’s side of the fence, she’d be reluctant to give her suspect time to form an alibi. She she couldn’t even be upset about it. Katia also didn’t refuse outright because it might endanger the Charger’s contract with the Inquisition, and she didn’t dare.

Krem frowned and then met the gaze of the Commander who looked at him. “It’s fine so long as I can have another with us. Grim won’t speak.” Commander Cullen looked like he wanted to argue, but then he nodded and turned to Rylen. “Will you fetch Leliana. Tell her we found Katia and we will be speaking with her and her commanding officer in the Chantry. In one of the… er… rooms underground.”

Rylen set off as Krem issued orders to Stitches. “I need Grim, and then, while we’re off talking someone will need to get word to Bull and get camp set up according to camp.” Stitches looked at Katia for a moment, though the woman looked nervous and troubled.

“Got it.” Stitches said, then placed a hand on her shoulder. “Horns up, Glory. The Chargers are at your back.”

“Horns up…” came her less than enthusiastic reply, though it made her smile for a bit while they walked to this Chantry. She would have been lying if she told anyone her hands weren’t shaking. It didn’t help that Rylen kept glaring at her over his shoulder. When Grim walked over Katia started what felt like the march to her death.

__

They were in a prison. There was no way around that. They were in a fucking prison, and Katia was sure it was going to be an intimidation tactic. There was no way all the people they had in the room were going to fit in this cell so Krem had Grim stand outside. It made her very uncomfortable that it was the two of them standing up to four people in the Inquisition. There was an elf outside of the room with Grim. He’d been summoned as well, for some reason. A table had been placed in front of her as had a glass with liquid in it.

Everything about this had her hackles up, but she did her best to soothe them. She looked at the glass of liquid and raised an eyebrow at the woman in a hood that had sat in front of her. The woman raised an eyebrow back.

“Right, so.” Katia started, taking the lead. This would give them, and her, a bit of an upper hand. She needed everything that she could get. “What did you need? What questions do you have for me?” Her eyes cast to Rylen and she pushed a little smile at him. “What did you tell them?”

This made the man with the adorable Scottish accent bristle. “What did I tell them?! What did you do, we should ask! We found the Templ-“

“Enough!” The woman at the table in front of her cut Rylen off and looked to Katia, who couldn’t help be a bit satisfied. Rylen was a weak link and she’d just exposed that. The hooded French woman set a casing and misshapen bullet on the table. “What can you tell us about this?”

Katia looked at the Nightingale, as she’d been called, for a beat or two. “So. This is about the man who drew on me in the woods when my back was turned. He tried to shoot again, but after I warned him that I was going to shoot him, and that he needed to drop his weapon, he pulled it back more. It was me or him and it was not going to be me.” She leaned back and crossed her arms. “The weapon I used is where no one can find it. You don’t need that kind of technology in this world. It’s all but destroyed ours.” Realizing she was closing herself off she forced herself to relax, uncrossing her arms and sparing a glance to the others in the room. Rylen still looked upset with her. The Commander was listening, all grim faced. The Elf outside seemed genuinely interested, and the woman with a clipboard in… Was she wearing lame? Was taking notes.

The Nightingale pursed her lips and leaned forward pressing on. “Don’t you think that’s for us to decide?”

Katia leaned forward, too, their noses were closer than red head expected. “No. I don’t. Starting from this technology, we’ve developed ways to level entire cities and kill millions of people in one shot. You guy are upset about that green light and the destruction that caused?” Her hand flew in the direction of where the breach was. “Times that by the size of a city larger than Denerim. All dead. No. You do not get to decide if you can have guns or not.”

Krem was watching her closely. “Is that the only thing you needed? We should return to our company.”

“No, Lieutenant Cremisius. We need to decide what to do about the dead Templar she left in the woods.

Krem opened his mouth to speak, but Katia groaned, cutting him off. “Oh my god. I had just come into a new world. There was a green light in the sky, someone shot at me, and then went to do it again. It was self-defense. I did not realize that his weapon served as dog-tags and as soon as I did, I sent someone back here with it. I’m sure they made it here.”

They all nodded “And joined the Inquisition”

She nodded and made a serving gesture with her hands. “See? Now, you all don’t seem surprised that I’m saying I’m from another world. You found another one. Another person from my world. At least one.”

This statement took everyone but the Nightingale by surprise, and, well, the elf outside of the cell smiled. Even Krem seemed surprised. Breaking the silence, she went on. “In my old life I was an undercover agent for our government. I know how to get information and how people can predictably react to information that should be out of the norm.” She leaned back in the stool and gestured to the room. “Check mate” Was all she said to the redhead in front of her. “If you have chess here. Probably you don’t. Though it’s really interesting that some things are the same…”

The Commander snorted a laugh as the Nightingale smiled. The woman pushed her hood back and looked at the people in the room. “I think that we now have to tell her, but no one outside of this room may know what is said” Rylen frowned though Cullen nodded. Katia thought about calling out, demanding that he stay to make it up to him, but it wasn’t her place. This was their organization, not hers and she had no say.

At this, Krem spoke up. “Stitches, Skinner, and Dalish amongst our chargers have been informed she’s from another world. They are already sworn to secrecy, and they don’t know everything.”

The red head nodded. “We should keep who knows limited. Thank you for informing us.”

Krem nodded. “The Chief would want you to know. Helps keep our people out of trouble if we’re upfront.”

The elf stepped into the room and up to the table. As Rylen slipped out of the room. It was as if this conversation had been some kind of queue for them to switch places.

The Elf looked down at her and then leaned his hip against the table, blocking her view of Krem and Grim. It set her on edge, but she met his gaze. “We were told that what you used was called a bullet.”

“Hi!” Katia smiled. “I’m Katia, The Chargers call me Glory. Nice to meet you.”

The elf kept his own passive smile as he said “Solas. It’s my pleasure to meet you.” He even gave a little bow that Katia was sure was a bit sarcastic.

Katia pointed to the crumpled metal. “This is a bullet.” She paused for a moment before sighing and reached into the pouch she kept at her side. She pulled out a bit of leather tied up with twine. Untying it, she opened to reveal the unspent cartridge. “This is a cartridge.” She looked into his eyes, which were dancing with interest. “Most people just call the whole thing a bullet, and that’s fine, but you should know how they look. If there are two of us, there may be more, and this weapon is more common in my world than I care to admit.”

Solas nodded as she tied the cartridge back up and put it away again. “Well, then. Have you heard of an Einstien-Rosen Bridge? That’s what she said it was called.” When Katia frowned and shook her head, he smiled more. “She said it might be more commonly known as a wormhole.”

That registered Katia’s eyes widened with understanding. “A wormhole. She thinks a wormhole might have brought us here?” The she frowned once more in confused contemplation, “but.. how?”

The elf shrugged a little. “We’re working on trying to figure it out, but the theory Vicki and I are working on is that when the Breach opened, and as it expanded, it may have punched holes in something she calls _spacetime_ creating a bridge between our worlds. There’s no telling how many people may be here from your world in ours. Vicki wonders if every time the Breach expanded, it opened more. The issue she’s running into is that we have no real way to test The Breach.”

Katia studied him as he spoke. This elf has a gentle scholarly air about him. “I… won’t be ably help with that, honestly. I went to school for international politics, not astrophysics.”

Solas smiled some “Is everyone in your world educated like this? Vicki said she was going to the University of Washington for Astronomy. “

“Wait.” Katia said standing up. Immediately everyone flinched. Cullen’s had went to his sword, Leliana readied herself. The woman with the shiny clothes looked ready to run. Krem even jumped a bit. The elf barely moved. “You’re saying she went to UW, University of Washington? In Seattle? I was in Western Washington. I mean, I live in Seattle, but I was on a hike about two hours away. If everyone is from the Pacific Northwest, Specifically around Seattle... “ She trailed off, thinking. “My sister could be here. Or coworkers. Friends.” Kleio sat back down, not looking at anyone, just thinking. “My sister… “ She frowned then shook her head. “There are over 4 million people in the Seattle area alone. The chances of that happening is extremely low.” She sighed and looked at them. “Did… you need anything else?”

“One of your cities has 4 _million_ people?” Ms. Lame was asking, in shock.

Cullen looked at the Nightingale who returned his gaze. “No, we don’t need anything else, but don’t go far. There may be more questions we want to ask later.” He said finally, his scared lip twitching up in a half smile. “Thank you.”

The Nightingale nodded. “Cassandra and the Herald are supposed to be back tomorrow. I’m sure they will want to talk to you.” Katia nodded and stood with a bow as she’d been taught by Krem, then walked out. There was another person here from Seatlle. Katia wanted to meet her. Vicki. Krem and Grim both followed no saying anything until they got back to camp.

Krem grabbed her arm, waving Grim on. “Wait. We need to talk. We’ll be there soon, Grim.”

Katia looked into his eyes and nodded. “Of course, Krem.”

The Charger smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and tugged her over to his tent. Someone had set it up next to a big space that would be where Bull’s tent would go. Once inside, they switched to Tevene. Katia had learned that she knew more of the language than Krem did, as it was something that Nobles in Tevinter used. Krem had learned it from The Iron Bull.

“ _What is a_ wormhole” Krem said the unfamiliar word in Common rather than Tevene.

Katia shrugged. “ _A bit of fiction that appears to be possible. I don’t know a lot about it. It’s supposed to connect one far away place to another. Or maybe dimensions. “_ Katia shrugged. “I’m not an astronomer. Or Astrophysicist. Or regular Physicist. Any of that.”

Krem sighed and continued in Tevene _“What are those?”_

_“They study the stars and things like motion, force, what makes up reality.”_ Katia stated in kind.

_“How are you after that interrogation? You seemed okay but.. Sister Leliana can be intense, I’ve heard and now we’ve seen..”_

Katia smiled and shook her head. “ _It was fine, Krem. She reminds me of my boss back home. Really. I’m okay. They were just doing their jobs.”_

He nodded and pulled her over into a hug. “I was worried, then. You’re like a little sister to me, now.”

She returned the hug and murmured into his shoulder. “Thank you for looking out for me. You’re a good older brother.”

He let her go, a small red tint to his cheek. “Good. We start you training people tomorrow. I think, once they see you, some of the Inquisition troops are going to be interested.”

Katia nodded and looked up at Krem. “I… want to go talk to Rylen. Or do you think…”

He smiled and shook his head. “It’s the Starkhaven accent, isn’t it? Always makes girls weak. Either way, though. Give him a bit.” Krem thumbed the blush on her cheeks. “The Chief is gonna try and hook you up if you blush like that in front of him. He thinks an intimate relationship will help you feel connected here. Of course, he already has some Chargers he wants to hook you up with. “

“What?! Really?! Is that why he keeps commenting on how attractive people in The Chargers are? You know he even asked me if you had a nice ass? I thought I was gonna die! Because Yeah, You’re attractive, but I’m not interested. I’m sorry Krem, but you feel like a sibling to me!”

Krem, who’d blanched when she told him Iron Bull had asked about his ass, nodded his agreement of her being a sibling. He shook his head and sighed. “Well, I mean. The Chargers are easy. We travel together. A lot of people hook up together. Honestly, if you found me attractive it would make everything kind of weird.”

Katia nodded and pulled her knees to her chest, sitting on her cot. They’d long since switched back to Common, but the next she muttered in Tevene. _“I don’t even know how people here avoid pregnancy… and I’m running out of my birth control pills. I also don’t know how you manage menstruation and I’m going to get my period when my pills run out.”_

Krem blinked at her for a moment then nodded. _“I’ll show you how we deal with monthlies, and then we can go talk to Stitches for an anti-pregnancy charm”_

Katia smiled and watched his explanation of managing monthlies. She had to say, it was not, at all, fun looking, but it would be okay. Then he led her to Stitches who raised his eyebrows at her. “You don’t have a charm for it?”

Katia pulled out the plastic case that contained the circle ring of pills and the center placebos. “This is what I’ve been doing and I’m out after this, so I need the charm.”

When he handed a charm over he nodded. “Weird. Here you go. Feel free to have fun. When the Rune stops glowing it’s time to get a new one.”

“Thanks Stitches!” She said happily looking it over. “You’re the best.”

He grinned. “I know. But it’s nice of you to say it in front of Krem!” The man in question rolled his eyes. “Have fun. If you want to have fun with me, I’m available.” He winked at Katia who gaped. “I heard Bull telling Krem you needed to feel connected to us, and I’d never turn down a beautiful lass like you, Glory.”

Katia just nodded once. “T-thanks. I’ll.. “ She cleared her throat. “I’ll keep it in mind?” Why was she so squeaky? “Thanks.”

Stitches laughed a little. “I’m glad you’re okay after being summoned.”

Krem shoved her forward and said “You have a good talk. I’ll be in the tent… no rush.” He chuckled to himself as he walked off. Katia watched him go with wide eyes.

Katia turned back to Stitches who patted the log next to him. She sat and sighed. “Yeah. I.. um. I met Captain Rylen on the road to Denerim right after the Breach opened… They had questions about that. I…. had been attacked by a Templar and killed him.” She shrugged and sighed. “It seems sorted now, though.”

Stitches nodded, and Katia looked over at his scared face and a blush touched her cheeks again. The man smiled. “Sometimes, people are in the wrong place at the wrong time. What did you think of them?”

Katia shrugged. “Hard to say. Sister Leliana. The Nightingale she was called? She seemed competent. I don’t have any real knowledge about what the others are supposed to do, but she’s clearly a master of information acquisition… spy stuff, I guess.” She grinned. “It was kind of thrilling talking to her.”

He shook his head. “Spies. I’ll stick with my poultices and keeping people alive.”

She nodded and tugged on his fingers that rested on his knees. He let her, eyes watching her face. “I’m not… I don’t believe I’ll ever be able to get home, even if they have someone that knows about wormholes.” He frowned at that.

“A wormhole? Is that… Bull Mentioned you were from another world. I thought he might be joking, but… it’s true. Isn’t it?” She nodded and sighed, still touching his hand.

“I… agree. I need to build connections here. I’m not sure about… I’ve… “ Katia sighed and Stitches took her hand in his, giving it a pat. “I’ve never really had casual sex and I’m not sure that I can do that, But I’m not… saying no, either.”

He smiled at her and then leaned in and gave her a kiss. She hadn’t been expecting it, but his hand on her cheek was warm and his lips were soft. A small “Wooooo” that sounded suspiciously like Dalish called out over the camp. Katia tried to pull away, but he moved his hand to rest in her hair, firmly, though not forcefully, wanting her to stay. It was enough to make her hesitate which gave Stitches the chance to deepen the kiss.

As his tongue teased her lips, she purred softly, leaning in, her own hand coming up to cup his cheek. She let him kiss her soundly, his other hand released her fingers, to pull her close. Some how he’d seized control from her, but it felt like he’d coaxed it from her as he’d coaxed her desire with a kiss.

“Bleeeegh Get a tent!” Someone else called, making people laugh. Katia started to pull away from the kiss as someone else, it sounded like Brick said “You shut up and leave them be or you’ll answer to me.”

As he pulled away, his hand stayed in the waves of her hair. “How pretty… that glow on your cheeks.” She smiled and looked down, though his rough fingers tilted her chin up to make her look at him. “I’ll stop tonight, but you’re… beautiful and strong. I find that attractive.”

This made her smile and touched her lips. “Flatterer. Thank you. It’s…. good to know I don’t have to be alone if I don’t have to be. I’m just… not sure I’m ready for more, but… the kiss was very nice.”

He nodded and let her go. “Go on, then, tell Krem I said have a good night.”

Katia stood, leaning down to kiss his scared cheek. “You have a good night too, Stitches. Thank you again for caring for me.”

He waved her off “Go, Woman, before I change my mind and drag you back to my tent. Krem says your undergarments are delicate and something any man would want to see, and I’d love to find out.” He smirked.

“Krem said- Oh! I’m gonna kill him.”

Stitches laughed. “To be fair… He only said anything because Bull brought it up first.”

That made her blush. Bull had talked about her underwear? She would be lying if she said she’d never had a dream where Bull was removing them. Rylen had been featured once or twice, even though they’d only met the once. She’d found he’d made an impression. Stitches, undoubtably would join them, probably that night. “Dammit…” She whispered making the man laugh.

“Off with you. Leave me to daydream about you in peace… unless you’ve changed your mind…” this made her shake her head and take a step back. “Good night, Glory.”

“Good night Stitches.” Katia turned around and rushed back to the tent she shared with Krem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to post more, but my motivation to write is litterally posting more that I have just backlogged. As it is, I merged two chapters together into one for this one because the first one was like 1900 words only. The second one was MUCH longer. Hopefully I can write more soon as now I have a LOT to write to get back up to my 20k I had backlogged, Whoops. This week was super hard for me to write. I had a few appointments.
> 
> Also, I hope you guy are in the mood for some really bad decisions. Thank you for reading!


	7. I wanna run, I wanna learn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Running to and from things. Katia connects to The Chargers a bit more closely

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. With the holidays I didn't have much time to write.

Krem, true to form, smirked at her from where he sat on his bed. “You look thoroughly kissed.”

She shrugged and leaned back on her own cot. “He kisses well… I’m just not sure about being in a relationship right now.”

“Who says it has to be a relationship?” Krem asked quietly.

She turned to look at her friend. Katia studied his face for a moment or two. When he turned to look at her, she asked quietly. “Do you need me to leave your tent? I mean. I don’t want to get in the way of you… you know... enjoying yourself, too.”

He smirked at her and shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. Besides, there are other tents I can go to if needed.” He tucked his arms behind his head and looked up at the roof of their tent. “It’s nice having you here. Honestly, Dalish used to worry, and come keep me company at night.” He turned to look at her. “Not in that way, but… she’s a good friend. She knows I get lonely. Bull’s really big on making sure we all touch and are close. I think he set her up for it at first. Then” He shrugged looking back up at the tent again.

Katia nodded and sighed. “I haven’t had sex in a few years.”

Krem turned in alarm. “Seriously? But you’re so strong and… “ He blushed.

“That’s not really a good thing sometimes in my world. Plus, I’m an FBI agent who goes undercover sometimes, and can’t always talk about my work, leave at all hours... That’s not really conducive to a relationship.” She smirked and threw a pebble from her boot at him.

“Hey!” He cried and tossed it back at her. “What is an FBI agent anyway? Is it like a spy?”

Katia paused, playing with the pebble. “Not really. I guess.. Every state… um.. It’s like a small government system within the country. We’re the United States because there are multiples of them and they form a larger government.” She sighed. “This is complicated. Anyway. They each had their own law enforcement. The FBI is the Law Enforcement agency of the Entire country and we work more with Criminal organizations, national security, we back up the police and work cases that cross state lines. People don’t really like Police Officers, and we’re like… Bigger, more imposing police.”

Krem frowned “You said police are like guards, yeah?” Katia nodded. “Why don’t they like guards?”

At this, Katia looked down and away. He thought she wasn’t going to tell him but then she did. “Well, they… kill people. A lot. Especially people of color. Black people, Black men. They aren’t seen so much as protectors of the people as protectors of the rich. Corrupted.”

Krem watched her. “Black people? People of color? What does that mean?”

“Well, we don’t have Elves or dwarves or Qunari… so. A lot of people judge others base on their skin tone. I’m sure even I have biases. It’s just… we call it ‘Racism.’” Her eyes med Krem’s.

He frowned even more. “Sometimes, you’re world sounds neat… other times, it sounds awful, ya know.” Katia nodded. The silence stretched on for a while “So, all of this meant that it was hard for you to like… find someone to have sex with? Even prostitutes.”

“Illegal.” Katia said roughly. “Well, in most places prostitution is Illegal.”

“Your people need to cut loose. I was all set to back you on not having sex, but I’m starting to think you might need it.” This made Katia laugh hard. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want.”

“Don’t worry,” She said holding up her hand. “I’m just trying to figure out who I am without being who I was. I-I’m not opposed.” Krem nodded and reached for the lantern. “What say we go to bed and wear these sods out in the morning before Bull ever gets a chance to say we slacked off?”

She grinned at him and nodded. “We should start with a warmup run before breakfast! It will be fun!”

He shook his head. “Fine. You can wake them up, I’ll make sure they do it.”

“They?” Katia asked with a sweet smile. “Krem de la Crème.” He grimaced at the nickname “You know you should lead by example. You simply have to join us….” He growled at her and blew out the light which made Katia laugh. In the dark, she stripped out of her day clothes into her sleeping clothes that she kept under her pillow during the day. She was looking forward to the morning for a change.

­­__

The next morning most of the Chargers and a few of the Inquisition troops who had been goaded into joining them were all glaring daggers at Katia and Dalish. Once Krem had told The Chargers that they were going to be starting their days off with a jog around the lake, most had grumbled. A few looked really excited, but Dalish had whooped with joy and bounced.

One person asked, “Who’s bright idea was that?” and Katia had tried to hide behind Skinner who had stood next to her as Krem stood in front of them. Krem gestured to her and Skinner, the betrayer, turned to glare at her, exposing her to the rest of the group’s glares.

Skinner muttered something about “Shems who think they have good ideas... “ as the group moved to were they were going to start. Dalish slung an arm over the other elf’s shoulder cheerfully.

“C’mon Skinner. It’s not that bad! Running is good for you!” Skinner growled “We used to go on runs all the time in my clan! It’s good to keep you moving. If we have to march suddenly wouldn’t it suck to not have the stamina?” More grumbling.

Krem nodded to Dalish “And that’s exactly why I agreed. It’s different when it’s just us alone, but part of a larger force, we may need to.”

As the team lined up, Katia was handing out some waterskins and gourds and flasks he assumed she’d found to fill with water. He didn’t want to admit it, but she’d been up before even him to get ready for their run this morning. “It’s really important to keep water if you need it…”

“I’ll take one.”

She turned to hand over the last of the two water skins she had. “You’ll have to share with me. This last one is for Krem” Katia said before it registered who it was next to her. “Stitches….” He took the skin from her with a soft, casual kiss. “Go give it to him, I’ll wait.” She couldn’t help the smile she gave him before running over to Krem to thrust the waterskin at him.

“I saw that.” He said with a smirk. “Think he’s serious?” She shrugged. “Go. Have a good run. Hope he can keep up with you!”

“Thanks Krem!” She rushed back to Stitches who was talking with a few other Chargers she’d met but wasn’t close to. “Hey, sorry…. I’m back.” Krem went to the front of the group as Dalish hopped over next to him.

“Alright you lot! We’ll eat when we get back, so get ready to work up an appetite!” That seemed to perk some of them up. A few people were unhappy about running on an empty stomach. “Now,” Krem called “move out!” He started off, and the group shuffled out at a jog. It didn’t take long for the group to spread out. Dalish was far ahead of everyone else, even Katia was a bit grumpy about it. Krem was pushing himself to stay in the foremost group, she could tell, and Skinner, despite her protests was also up with them. As were a few of the Inquisition’s general troops. It was voluntary for them, after all, it made sense that the people who chose to run would find it easy. A larger number than she liked of the Chargers had started walking and running intermittently. That would improve over the following months.

To Katia’s surprise, Stitches seemed to be content to run at her pace, which was close to the front of the pack. He was sweating a bit that made his shaved head glisten a bit. She smirked and shook her head before reaching over to the waterskin he held. He gave a slight jump before smiling and handing it over.

When they finished the runners took a bit to catch their breath. Stitches collapsed into the snow, panting. “C’mon, get up! You should walk around, or you can hurt your lungs….” She tugged on his arm and he fought against her, “You’re a healer! You should know thi- Ah!”

He tugged her down after sweeping her feet down. Stitches caught her with a smirk. “A kiss and I’ll get up.”

“Doubtless” She said with a smirk of her own “but not the kind of up I meant.” She gave him a quick kiss

Stitches laughed and then pushed her off just as Krem shouted “Oi! You two!”

Katia, grinning, pulled Stitches up and they walked over to Krem who handed them pots and pointed to rations on the ground “They’re still out there working hard, so we should get food ready for them.”

Katia picked up a ladle and then looked down at a pot as Stitches grabbed the other one. A few other people were getting things started. Her face turned red. “I-… Krem, you’ve surely noticed I never cook. It’s not because I’m lazy. I don’t know how to cook in _my_ world. I had premade meals that were cooked for me or came with _very_ simple instructions and… I burn things without a timer.”

Krem smiled. “You’re seriously telling me you can’t cook.” She nodded and he pointed to Stitches. “Go. Learn. Consider this part of your training.” As the woman ran off, Krem muttered. “Unfucking believable, can speak five languages, knows hand to hand combat, but can’t use a sword or cook. How does a world create someone like that? What the hell…”

More people were coming in and Krem called a few over to cook.

Stitches laughed at Katia looking at the pot fearfully. “You seriously don’t know how to cook? Did I hear you say you had all your meals made for you?” Her blushing cheeks were enough to cause him to laugh and mutter. “As bad as a noble brat in some ways, you are.”

She tossed snow at him. “Come here, cut these up.” He handed her some produce. “And go fetch some water. We’ll need it.” Katia settled in to being ordered around.

The rest of the morning meal went easily and then they started training. The Commander came over to see all the different ways the small company had broken up. He nodded at each group, giving pointers where her could. When he got to where Katia was showing some people what she knew of hand to hand he lingered.

“Well,” The Commander said. “Hand to hand? Interesting. Where did you learn this?”

“Continue to work on falling with each other for now. How you fall and take hits is most important in a fight. I know you know some of this, but you’ve also gotten some bad habits that we need to break.” She patted a few on the shoulders before moving to where the blonde was standing, watching.

“Well, Some I learned when I was in training to be a … guard. Well, we didn’t call it that, but that gives you an idea. The rest, most of it, I learned growing up. I studied martial arts for fun. Some kids played soccer… I learned how to throw boys across the room.” She shrugged, grinning. “We learned some sword work and other things for exhibition. Nothing super useful in an actual fight, and I’ve forgotten more than I remember of those, but I never took a break from judo, so.” She shrugged.

“Is it useful? I mean, here?” He asked looking her over.

“I dunno, but Bull and Krem asked me to show people some things. So. Maybe? You want to get tossed around some?” Katia gave him an assessing look “I bet it would be pretty easy in all that armor…”

He chuckled and raised his hands. “No. Thank you, the last thing we need is for the Commander of the Inquisition to end up on his back.”

“I guess that depends on how you got there.” She retorted before she could stop herself.

The Commander rubbed the back of his neck in reply as he said “R-Right, well. That’s not .. um… That’s not entirely appropriate.”

She grinned at him and shrugged. “Then what do you say we spar? Me hand to hand, you with a sword and shield. It would be good to test how well it would work in a fight.”

He laughed again. It was an attractive laugh. “We’ll see. I will think about it. If I have anyone interested in learning, are you alright if I send them to you?” At her nod, he continued. “Then, if you would like, you are welcome to train with us. Though… I must confess I’m less gentle.”

Katia grinned and shifted her weight. “I’ll only agree if you spar with me.”

He laughed and waved her off as he moved back to his troops who had been watching them closely. Her eyes met Rylen’s and she couldn’t stop herself from waving, earning an offended look before the former Templar followed his Commander off.

Katia returned to training, both in hand to hand before she moved on to learn to fight with the Daggers she’d been favoring from Skinner. It was afternoon by the time word reached them that the Herald of Andraste was entering the valley. Bull’s Chargers were excited to see the group again and started cleaning up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to prove this story earns the rating soon, not next chapter, but I promise there's a goody in it and I've been super anxious to get here because I'm 40k in and this character is a favorite of mine and will hopefully answer some questions.
> 
> also, I have some write ups for random others who may or may not be in this world as other Modern people in Thedas. Some I'm keeping, some I'm not, but I'm not sure if you want to know about them. I can include them as little shorts in a separate story? Idk. I'm considering it. I hope you like this.

**Author's Note:**

> Real Name: Kleio [Last Name]  
> Alias: Katia Markos


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